JEDDAH: Thursday night at the Prince Faisal Sports Complex in Jeddah, Al-Ittihad defeated Al-Ahli 91-66 to all but clinch the title in the Al Jawal-Saudi Basketball Federation League.
Ansar’s loss to Ohud in Madinah on Friday night 92-88 was the decisive factor. With only two games left in the regular season Ittihad has the best record regardless of the outcome of the last two games. Ittihad replaced import player Danny Johnson with point guard Marlon Palmer hoping to improve the team’s unity and output and it appeared to work.
Palmer, a veteran player who won championships with Ittihad a few years ago, took charge scoring 23 points and handing out 8 assists.
Import player Kelly Wise had 25 points 12 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots. Adel Al Johani hit five 3-point shots and finished with 17 points. Ali Magrabi had 11 points 7 rebounds and 6 assists. Jaber Kabri, Yaya Iberhim, and Jaber Shamrani all played great defense on Ahli’s import player Sherman Brittingham and held him to 12 points, way below his 25-point average.
Ittihad played like a fine-tuned machine and looks like the team to beat in the post-season 10-day tournament featuring the league’s top eight teams. Kevin Francis was high man for Ahli with 21 points.
Sherman and Maher added 12 each. Around the league Wehda beat Masera 77-74, Fath beat Al-Hilal 92 to 83, Nahda beat Qadisia 95-80, and Safa beat Khalij 81-78. The top eight for the playoffs are Ittihad, Ansar, Ohud, Hilal, Ahli, Wehda , Nahdah, and either Khalij or Fath.
