Recap
Final (12:00 PM-1:00 PM) Saturday, Jun 17, 2006
Al-Masad
Sharh
  1 2 T
Al-Masad (3-5-0) 15 22 37
Sharh (3-4-1) 11 30 41

Jun 20, 2006
by Teepu Khawja  

In retrospect, I should have known that this would have been the game of the week, but perhaps I can say it became so due to what happened in the earlier games.

The stage had been set. Loser of this game was going home because Al-Fil held the head-to-head against both teams. The gravity of the game apparently was not evident by both teams as Al-Masad showed up with only 4 players while Sharh was a no-show at game time. Luckily for Sharh they walked in after 8 minutes of the 1st half clock had already expired, just 2 minutes shy of losing by default. This meant that both teams only had 30 minutes of game time to play themselves into the playoffs.

Despite having only 4 players, Al-Masad was playing very well taking an early lead and playing evenly and unselfishly. Sharh seemed a little bewildered as they were playing undisciplined and didn't seem to understand how they could be losing despite playing 5-on-4.

Al-Masad had its 5th player show up prior to the end of the half at which time they took a 15-11 halftime lead. Not bad score considering a 10 minute half. Al-Masad was lead by Hirui with 6 points and Sharh was lead by Ibrahim and Usman with 4 points each but they coulld only grab 2 rebounds between them (both by Ibrahim).

The 2nd half played out just like the first half with both teams playing well and keeping the game in striking distance. Unfortunately for Al-Masad Abel wasn't scoring at his usualy clip from the outside, but despite his youth he showedf poise by driving the lane often and getting rewarded at the line.

More bad news came when Hirui drove the lane and got called for an offensive, but even worse he came up hobbling after landing awkwarly on his ankle. On the other side Sharh had woken up and began exerting its strengths as they owned the boards and Ibrahim started getting into the lane.

The game went into stop time and Al-Masad had to start fouling to let Sharh shoot bonus. The failure to rebound cost Al-Masad at the end of the game when Sheeraz hit 1 free throw to make it a 3 point game with 10 seconds to go. Sharh manged to rebound the next miss and Al-Masad was forced to foul again allowing Sharh to make it a 4 point game and 2 possessions with 4 seconds remaining. Sharh wisely let Al-Masad shoot an uncontested 3 and let time expire. The game ended with Sharh winning 41-37 lead by the Muslim Gear Player of the Week Ibrahim Baig who dropped 17 points and 11 rebounds. Despite his injury Hirui lead his team with 15 points.

With the win Sharh grabbed the 5th playoff spot and Al-Masad was eliminated.