JEDDAH, 29 March 2008 — Thursday night at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium, the Saudi Basketball Federation Club Championship Playoffs began. Grabbing early victories in the competition were heavyweights Ansar, Al-Ittihad and Ohud.

This is the 15th year for the playoffs with the top eight teams in the fold. Each team has three import players.

The teams are in two groups. Group A has Ansar, Ittihad, Hilal, and Qadisia. In Group B are Ohud, Ahli, Fath, and Wehda. Ansar took some doing before putting away Qadisia 78-75 in the first game. Ansar battled down to the last seconds to get the win.

At the end of the first period, the score was tied at 16-16. At halftime Qadisia led by one point 31-30. Defense from both teams kept the score low. Ansar managed to take the lead in the third quarter 55-48 and played hard to keep it. Qadisia kept charging back but could not answer the call and lost by three points. Ansar’s imports, Jonathan Jones and Bbaka Camera scored 30 and 13 points.

Ayman Bilal and Hasim Fatawi each had 12 points.

Qadisia’s high men were imports Akheem Wright with 27 points and Nick Shepard with 12. Qadisia’s veteran point guard Ali, hit three 3-pointers and finished with 13 points.

In the second game, Ittihad destroyed Hilal and romped to a 109-60 victory.

The first period score was Ittihad 30 and Hilal 15. At the break, Ittihad had 60 points and Hilal 26. Ittihad were on fire hitting 9 three-point shots in the half. Mahmood Abdul Rauf set the pace scoring at will and passing to the open man.

Mahmood finished with 23 points and 6 assists. Jay Ward struggled in the first half missing a lot of shots but pulled it together and ended up with 27 points.

Marvin Stone Ittihad’s third import player hit 12, Ali Mugraby 12, and Jaber Shamrani 10. For Hilal import Priest Lauderdale hit 27 points, Ahmad Samenta had 18. Ohud faced Wehda next in a tight game that saw Wehda lead most of the game only to lose in the last minute 84-81.

The first quarter ended Wehda 23 Ohud 15. After both teams finished the second quarter tied at 37-37 Wehda took a 59-50 at the close of the third quarter.

The forth period belonged to Ohud’s Jihad Mohammad, Abdul Mosen, and Daly Jones whose energy in the last period held on to beat Wehda. Ohud’s Imports Jihad Mohammad scored 24, Daly Jones 18, Suliman Camera 16, and Ohud veteran Abdul Mosen had 17. Wehda’s imports Lukman Abdullah hit 28 and Jamal Brown 26, with Wehda’s own Ayoub Barnarwi adding 13.