JEDDAH, 26 January 2008 — Sticking to their winning combination, local favorites Al-Ittihad sustained their winning touch as they dribbled past hometown rivals Al-Hilal 72-61 in the fourth week of the Saudi Basketball Federation League on Thursday.
The match was played at the sports complex of the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium.
Hilal’s import player Ismael Muhammad kept his team in the contention. He scored 30 points and pulled down over 10 rebounds. Neither team could break away from the other for most of the game, staying within three points of each other until, with just three minutes left in the game, Ittihad’s Mahmoud Abdul Rauf broke the game open and scored 11 points in two minutes.
Ali Mughrabi, the star of Ittihad team, and import DeAngelo Collins both did good snatching rebounds and scoring.
In another match, Al-Ahli breezed by Nasr 85-24. The first five only played for about eight minutes in the opening period of the game. Ahli’s coach played a full-court press against Nasr the whole first half and went up 59-11. The night ended with three teams still undefeated: Ahli, Ohud and Ansar. Ohud thumped Nahda 82-76. Ansar added another win to their record by defeating Qadisiya 90-60. In other games around the league, Fath edged out Wehda 72-71, while Masera colleted their third victory as they out-rebounded Arabi 90-73.
Masera moved ahead of Hilal at the standings.
The league needs some balance to stop the top four teams from dominating the season. People noted that only the teams with good import players make it to the finals. The import players add excitement to the game and they teach the players skills while they train and play with their teams.
The import players are still scoring about half of the points on their teams.
