JEDDAH, 7 April 2006 — Al-Ittihad delayed the Al-Ahli celebration, at least for a day, with a 76-74 victory last night that leveled the best-of-three championship series at one game apiece in the Saudi Basketball League at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here.
Ahli were looking to seal the series with a comprehensive 97-83 triumph in the series opener Wednesday. Instead, they will have to work an extra game and hope to bounce back in today’s rubber match if they are to realize their first title.
Ittihad came back from eight points down with a little less than five minutes left in the third quarter to tie the count at 53-53. The game was touch-and-go from there although Ittihad took control when star forwad Ali Mughrabi hit three baskets in the final minute.
Mughrabi finished with 26 points, while Steven Howard added 17 for Ittihad.
Bobby Madison, Ahli’s top scorer with 28 during the series opener, was limited to 14 points yesterday although Damon Forney made up for the slack with 22 markers.
Ahli used a suffocating defense to slow down Ittihad and kept the points coming during a hot run between the second period and middle of the third quarter.
While Madison was shooting from all over the court Yasser Muthar set the Ahli pace in the first half scoring 17 for the game. Forney came on late in the game scoring 14. Khalid Falater put the icing on the cake with 11 fourth quarter points (two three-pointers) five in all for the game and finished with 20.
On Wednesday, Howard scored 30 points Michael Sanders 20 and Mughrabi 14 for Ittihad. Ittihad played six games in seven days, five games in a row and it showed.
It was no surprise that Ittihad, Ahli, Ohod, and Al-Ansar made up the final four in the playoffs. The season finished this same way. Ittihad had two losses along the way.
Ahli were undefeated entering the finals. In the final four Ahli won their best two out of three series against Ohod with back-to-back wins. Ittihad struggled against Ansar dropping one game. They won the final of that series 63- 52. It was their toughest win to date.
The young Ansar team built a 23-point lead against Ittihad in the second period. Ittihad’s Jaber Al Shamrani was the hero after riding the bench for two games. He made two three-pointers in a row, stole the ball, pulled down an offensive rebound and scored. Jaber lifted the team’s level of play and inspired them to pull out the win. Ansar stopped playing team ball, their shots went flat and lost. Ohod captured third place with a win over Ansar 75-63.
