| Asr plays a great game to get the upset win |
Jun 16, 2008 |
When these teams met in the regular season, Qariyah won by a 52-47 score but Asr only had five players available and went 6 for 20 from the free throw line. Despite this being the third seed (Qariyah) versus the sixth seed (Asr), many were predicting Asr to pull off the upset if they used Farhad Khan in the post as Qariyah would not be able to control him just as they could not in the regular season when he went for 18 points and 15 rebounds.
The game started off very slow as both teams were unable to put points on the board. After 10 minutes of play, Asr was leading 6-4 but both teams were struggling as Asr was unable to finish around the basket while Qariyah kept committing silly turnovers. Qariyah finally called a timeout with 5:04 left and now trailing 14-6 as they needed to get everyone on the same page. The stoppage seemed to help as Nadeem Hraiche started to be more aggressive and was keeping his team in the game.
At the end of the half, Asr was leading by a 22-17 score. Hraiche led Qariyah with 8 points while Sufian Hamid led Asr with 5 points.
Asr started the second half strong as they started to get the ball into Khan where he was slicing up the interior defence for Qariyah. Yet Asr made a few mistakes offensively and the wasted possessions prompted them to call a timeout with 13:01 left and leading 32-25. Qariyah was struggling to stay in this game as Khan continued to punish them. Qariyah called a timeout with 8:50 left and down 38-27; they needed to put something together quickly or this game would be over. Asr would try to slow the game down the rest of the way and managed to trade baskets which maintained their lead. Qariyah just could not get the defensive stops they needed down the stretch and ended up losing the game by a final score of 49-38.
Qariyah was led by Hraiche with 19 points who was the only consistent scoring threat for his team. Asr was led by Khan with 14 points, 10 rebounds, 4 blocks and 3 steals for another all-around great game. He was supported by Nael Salah Eddin with 10 points.
Asr will now advance to the semi-finals to face Ma’un. When they met, Ma’un won by a 56-39 final score which saw them play the second half shorthanded as a player fouled out and they were playing the game with no substitute players. Asr would need to play a smart controlled game and limit the turnovers. Attacking the Ma’un forwards will be key as well as all the Ma’un forwards have a tendency to pick up cheap fouls. |
