JEDDAH, 15 May 2007 — Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ahli and Kuwait from Kuwait qualified first from their group into the quarterfinals by scoring their third straight wins yesterday in the ART-sponsored Arab Basketball Confederation Championship at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here.

Ahli scored a procedural 83-81 victory over Al-Arabi from Qatar in the Fourth Group of the competition that concludes the preliminary round games today.

Despite the defeat Arabi qualified second from the group with a 2-1 win-loss record. The two other teams in the group Al Yarmouk of Yemen and Delasal of Palestine both lost their first two games.

Kuwait kept their perfect record in the First Group with an 89-62 triumph over Ittihad from Syria in the second game yesterday. Raja’a of Morocco became the second qualifier from the First Group by winning a must-win game against Maktabah from Sudan 121-67.

While doing their part of the bargain Raja’a got a lift from Kuwait. Going into yesterday’s action, Ittihad and Raja’s were tied on 1-1.

In the first period Morocco scored 31 against 11 and set the tone for the game. The second quarter score was 59 – 31 Morocco. By the third, they had 86 to 48 and kept the pressure to finish with plenty to spare.

Aumsa Adnan poured in 32 for Morocco, while Kalifa Mustafa added 20. For Sudan William Mills had 14 points. Morocco shot 61 % and Sudan only 42 % from the field.

Kuwait’s game against Syria was a virtual walk in the park. Kuwait led 29-11 after the first period and 52-20 at the half. Kuwait’s big men dominated in the paint and their starters were able to rest in the fourth quarter. Kuwait’s top scorers were Wilmeed Madija with 23 points and Brandon Crump with 18. For Syria Salah Abdul Kareem had 25 points. In first quarter play Ahli dominated and led all the way finishing 29-18. Qatar cut the lead by halftime to four points. Ahli led 49-45.

In the third period Ahli added four more to their lead, but Al-Arabi pushed hard in the fourth and came close in a game that seemed nobody wanted to win.

For Ahli Jarred Merrill had 29 points and seven rebounds and Jamel Staten 18 and seven rebounds.

Qatar’s high scorers were Boney Watson with 27 points and John Jones with 22.