DHAHRAN, 12 April — Just one week after the Dhahran Academy Varsity Boys Basketball team won their Intra-Kingdom Tournament (IK), the Dhahran Academy Junior Varsity (JV) Boys team held their first-ever IK Basketball Tournament.
This two-day event which was held at Dhahran Academy hosted eight ISG boys’ teams from around the Kingdom. The teams were split into two divisions and only the top two teams from each division would meet in the championship match. So the first day of play is always hard because all games being played result in standings for the following day’s semifinals and championship games.
Dhahran JV team had a lot to prove this year since last year they were the IK Tournament champions, and a repeat was in their minds.
The Dhahran JV team cruised through their division the first day winning against Yanbu, DHA-B, and Rahima teams, with an average point spread of 25 points per game. With these victories Dhahran JV team had a place in the next day’s play and only needed to beat two more teams to secure there back-to-back titles that they so desired.
As Dhahran JV swept by their teams a strong Riyadh team dominated their division. Riyadh controlled every team they played with strong defense, offense, and great ball movement. Riyadh had total command of their division beating each opponent by an average of 57 points per game, placing them in top position in the championship games. The semifinal round was a match between Riyadh and Conti (Jeddah) and Dhahran and Yanbu. The winners of these matches ended up in the championship game.
The semifinal games started off with Dhahran JV struggling against the Yanbu team. Yanbu players played a fantastic game and came out with some hard defense. Good rebounding, passing and shooting from Yanbu guards kept the game close up until the last 3.6 seconds of the forth quarter.
