JEDDAH, 30 November 2007 — The official season started Wednesday night at the Prince Abdullah Al- Faisal Sports Complex basketball hall here. The Prince Faisal ibn Fahd Championship is a 10-day tournament that precedes the Saudi Basketball Federation League.
Entered this year there are 12 teams divided into three groups.
The first group clubs are: Al-Ittihad, Al-Hilal, and Masera, and Fath. The second group has Al-Ansar, Al-Qadisiya, Al-Wehda, and Nahdah. The third group comprises Al-Ahli, Arabi, Ohod, and Al-Nasr. Only the Saudi players can participate in this first tournament of the year and no import players allowed.
This tournament gives the teams a chance to come together, play against each other, and just get to know your teammates in a competitive atmosphere.
In the first game, Ittihad crushed Hilal 95-55. Both teams seemed to have the pre-season jitters but Ittihad ran away with the game. Although the veteran players played well all the bench players got into the game and scored. Adel Al Johani had 13 points in the first half. Jaber Sharani scored double figures in the second half. One bright spot was Ayman Al-Madani. A newcomer to the senior team promoted from the junior ranks, Al-Madani did well and scored double figures.
Yaya Ibrahim looked great. In addition, of course, Ali Magrabi and Jaber Al-Kabri were great. For Hilal, Abdul Rahman and Hani Al Mohamad showed promise.
In the second game, Ansar from Madinah blasted Qadisiya 67-43. At the end of the first quarter, the score was 6 points Qadisiya 7 points for Ansar. Talk about pre-season jitters both teams were missing jump shots and layups.
It’s hard to pick a player when everyone has the jitters. In the second quarter they settled down a little bit. At the end of the second quarter, it was Qadisiya 12 and Ansar 29. Ansar has some strong talent and won the game.
Routs ruled the day as Ahli overwhelmed Arabi 79-47. The game was a runaway like the first two. Ahli played all of their men and everybody got a good workout. Ittihad won the tournament the last six years, and is defiantly the team to beat. Over the 31-year history of this tournament Uhod has won 14 times to Ittihad’s 12 in a great rivalry between the teams. It remains to be seen what will happen this year. As of now, it looks like Ittihad is the team to beat.
