JEDDAH, 2 December 2007 — A good combination of man-to-man passes and front court tussle caused Al-Ansar’s easy 66-53 win over Al-Wehda in the first game at the ongoing Prince Faisal Basketball Championship at Prince Abdulah Al-Faisal basketball hall on Friday night.
Ayman Bilal scored 19 points to put Ansar on course for a victory, but Ansar faltered in its early lead when Wehda appeared to be making a comeback, turning heat up against Ansar. Nevertheless, when it was all said and done Ansar prevailed despite Wehda’s spirited attempt to make a second comeback. Unfortunately for Wehda, the margin didn’t get any smaller.
In the second game, Al-Ittihad extended their streak with an easy 119-59 win against high-flying Masira. Top scorers Ali Mughrabi and Adel Al-Johani relaxed on the sidelines giving the bench players an opportunity to show their mettle.
All of the Ittihad players scored. Masira did their best but could not get pass Ittihad’s full-court press and overall good defense.
The third game was worth the wait: Ahli against Ohud. Ahli got off to a fine start racking up 18 points in the first period against 11 for Ohud. At half time, Ahli had increased the lead to 10 points, 31-21. Then Ohud narrowed the gap by five points in the third period, trailing 41-36 to Ahli. With five minutes to go in the third period, Ohud tied the game 45-all. The scoring went back and forth, and with 59 seconds left the game was tied 51-all. After the referees called a charge — first against Ahli then seconds later against Ohud — Ahli fouled Ohud with 0.8 seconds left in the game. Ohud made one of the two shots and won by one point.
The final score was Ohud 52, Ahli 51.
