Recap
Final (11:00 AM-12:00 PM) Saturday, Feb 25, 2006
Duha
Nasr
  1 2 T
Duha (4-5-0) 33 38 71
Nasr (4-4-1) 36 36 72

Devonish Clutch In Victory Feb 28, 2006
by Teepu Khawja  

DEFINITELY the playoff game of the day. High scoring, intense, and close to the very end. None can argue that this outcome was the definite surprise of the season so far. Coming into the season Duha was favoured as one of the top contenders for the Championship with 2 players from last year's champs. Nasr on the other hand had earned its status as underrated because of its poort start to the season in which they didn't see thier first win until their 5th game of the season. But along the way, Nasr did end up having some fine performances against the top teams, including a tie against Humazah, showing perhpas that they play to the level of their competition?

Both teams came out flying with Ahsan Raza leading the charge for Duha and Renold James for Nasr. Ahsan was a beast all day on the boards for Duha finishing with a ridiculous 17 boards as nobody from Nasr could keep him off the boards (despite their continual complaints of over the back). The inability to stop Duha from rebounding was evident by the fact that Nasr was outrebounded by Duha to the tune of 35-16 for the game. These two teams battled to a 36-33 score for Nasr at half time.

Nasr came out in the 2nd half bouyed by their execllent 1st half performance, but Duha began to exert itself through a press and even better reboudning by Ahsan. Duha seemed to be all over the boards against Nasr apparently recognizing thier advantage in this game. The 2nd half saw Ahsan start getting offensive help from Mohammed Sayeed, Afsar and Amer Malik. Things seemed to begin unravellling for Nasr, especially after big man Chris Tyrell fouled out of the game. But Nasr began to regain its composure as it regained the lead after some timely fast break points from Renald and clutch jump shots of Arsalan. In the end, despite excellent games from everyone, it came down to free throws and Kareem Devonish was clutch to say the very least. He connected on 6 straight free throws in the final minute (especially amazing considering he only shot 43.5% from the charity stripe during the regular season) to seal the win for Nasr (Mohammed Sayeed hit a 3 at the buzzer to make this a 1-point victory). Nasr adavnced to play 1st place Humazah in next week's other semi-final game.