JEDDAH, 2 June 2006 — In the first day of 17th Asian Clubs Championship, four games were played in Fag’han Hilal A-Mutairi in Al-Qadisia club in Kuwait city on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ittihad crushed Sagesse from Lebanon 78-58 in the opening game of the tournament. No one expected the Ittihad win because Sagesse were always a favorite in the area.

Ittihad coach Argentine Daniel Maffei took over only during the Arab Club Championships six weeks ago, where he piloted the Jeddah-based team to the final game against stronger teams coming away with the second place cup. Maffei used a box and one defense on Fadi Al Khatib and held him to only 2 points for the game.

Ittihad’s American import Marlon Parmer and the Panamanian Jamie Lloreda combined with Adel Al Johani and Ali Mughrabi to knock out Sagesse.

Ittihad led all the way hitting the turn comfortably ahead at 44-22. The defense was intense. Maffe said, “they played like lions, they were great”. Parmer scored 20 points, Lloreda 18, Johani 18, and Mughrabi 17. Adel Johani made four three-point shots in the game. Alvin Sims for Sagesse led all scorers with 22 points, but one man cannot win the game alone. Jerod Ward chipped in with 10 points, and Joe Ghattas 9.

Al-Rayyan of Qatar defeated Iran’s Saba 78-61. Saba jumped out to a 20-15 first quarter lead. Al-Rayyan dominated in the second quarter ending 41-32, and the third 59-47. Mehran Shahintab, the Iranian coach, tried to go man to man but William Knight and Eric Chatfield were effective for Al Rayyan. Andre Pitts from Saba made a big effort under the basket, but the experience of Yaseen Ismail and his teammates gave the win to Rayyan.

High scorer for Al-Rayyan was William Knight with 22 points including five triples. High scorer for Saba was Andre Pitts with 28 points.

Al-Jalaa (Syria) 82 Al-Qadisia(Kuwait) 74: The game was close. Jalaa had led after the first quarter 20-16. In the second quarter Qadisia players picked up pace but still trailed by 6 points 48- 42, and Jalaa took control up until the final buzzer. Despite Qadisia’s enormous effort from the import duo of Romanian Virgil Stanescu and Lithuanian Marijonas Petravicius , the game got away from them.

High scorers from Jalaa: Michel Madanli 27 points, Ace Custis 18 and Julius Nwosu 12. High scorers from Qadisia: Marijonas Petravicius 23 points, Virgil Stanescu 12 and Abdallah Al-Sarraf 12.

In the other game, Jordan’s Fastlink beat Young Cagers of India 104-79, as Damien Cantrell scored 35 points and Nate Johnson added 25.