| Live By The Three, Die By The Three |
Jun 18, 2008 |
The second semi-final of the game had two teams face each other that new each other very well. Al-Masad has been fantastic this season as they support a cast that does damage on both ends of the floor. Nasr on the other hand is infamous for their small size but sharp shooting. They have typically staked many of their games on their three-point shooting and nothing different was expected from them in this match. They just have to hope that Walied and Farhan Abdi rebound well!
The game started slow. Both teams traded baskets but the defense was a bit sloppy as many fouls were committed. This slowed the pace of the scoring. Al-Masad saw no single man dominate the half, rather the scoring was distributed evenly between 4 men. Nasr, on the other hand, was riding the wave created by Farhan Abdi. Abdi would score 11 points in the half to keep pace with Al-Masad. Unfortunately the rest of his teammates were unable to contribute too much and the three-ball was not working for them as they finished the half 0-6 from beyond the arc. Al-Masad led at the half 24-21.
The second half was when Ibrahim Baig and Usman Chaudhry took over. The two looked like Lemieux and Jagr as they would weave their way through the defense, make some pretty passes and score at will. They were tough on the glass on both ends of the floor and gave little opportunity for Nasr to keep pace. Desperation was slowly kicking in for Nasr as they watched the lead continue to grow. With 5 minutes remaining Nasr was taking a serious beating and called a time-out trailing 46-31. Who knows what Nasr discussed in that time-out because it was just futile. They did what they were expected to do and that's relyng on the long bombs. Sehic and Sherif Shehata would jack up the shots for the remainder of the game. Although the team's last 4 baskets were three-pointers they missed a whole lot more. In fact they shot 5-22 from beyond the arc. Safe the say they shot themselves in the foot and there was no way a team like Al-Masad was going to give them a chance. The final score was 55-44. Next up for Al-Masad is a date with Ash-Shams to see who will be crowned this season's champs.
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