| Ma’un starts off slow but runs away with the game in the second half |
Jun 10, 2008 |
When these teams met in the regular season, Ma’un escaped with an overtime victory that they nearly allowed to slip away with poor free throw shooting that saw them go 7 for 30 from the line. Since that game they have changed their offense to be more guard focused which ruined the plans of Bayyina who wanted to play a “hack-a-Shaq” style to put Ma’uns poor free throw shooters at the line. Ma’un had all their players present including Hussain Habib who injured his knee early in the season but was on the bench in case his team needed some heroics. Bayyina seemed to be in danger of playing short initially but did get six players before tip-off.
Ma’un came out flying to start the game as they built a quick 7-0 lead on the back of Raheel Rawjani who hit a 3-pointer from the corner and scored a lay-up in transition. Bayyina was back on their heels early but managed to slow the game down and with nine minutes left in the half, Ma’un was leading 11-7. Both offences went cold for the next few minutes until David Khan of Bayyina drilled a 3-pointer to cut Ma’un’s lead to 11-10 with 6:15 left. The rest of the half was no clinic in offensive schemes as open shots were missed and everyone seemed to be standing still.
The half ended with Ma’un leading 14-11 which was good news for Bayyina. Khan led Bayyina with 6 points while Ma’un was led by Rawjani with 5 points. Ma’un was also having their offense untracked by poor free throw shooting as they were 1 for 8 from the line.
The second half saw Bayyina tie the game as Jibran Khan hit a 3-pointer to make it 14-14. Ma’un responded by playing more of a pressure defence which was bad news for Bayyina who were unable to bring the ball up properly. The result was a Ma’un 11-0 run which forced Bayyina to call a timeout with 15:46 left and trailing 25-14. The stoppage seemed to work temporarily as Bayyina stopped the Ma’un run and protected the ball better, but this did not last as Ma’un stepped up the pressure and ate up Bayyina guard Rahyl Hassan who committed numerous turnovers as he either tried to go solo into a crowd and got stripped or threw weak passes that were easily picked off. Bayyina called another timeout with 8:44 left and down 38-24 as the game was clearly slipping away. The rest of the game was uneventful as Ma’un controlled the tempo and Bayyina was unable to get anything going.
The game ended with Ma’un winning by a 47-30 final score. They were led by Abdul-Rehman Khan with 14 points and 8 rebounds. Raheel Rawjani finished with 10 points while Komail Rawjani finished with 12 points. Bayyina was led by David Khan with 12 points.
Ma’un was able to overcome another poor performance from the line as they shot 5 for 20 (25%) which would have ended their playoff run against a better team. Ma’un will now advance to play the winner of Asr versus Qariyah. |
