JEDDAH, 9 May 2006 — Al- Riyadi Beirut from Lebanon captured the championship cup at the 19th Arab Clubs basketball tournament held in Rabat City, Morocco Sunday night by defeating Al-Ittihad from Jeddah 99 — 75.
RCA Casablanca from Morocco won third place by beating Al-Kuwait of Kuwait 77-72 in the first match of the night.
Al-Riyadi got off to an early lead in the first quarter. American Calvin Warner played his best game of the tournament. He penetrated from the start, scored off offensive rebounds, blocked shots, and passed effectively leading his team to a 35-19 first quarter spread over Ittihad.
Al-Riyadi scored mostly inside the paint area. By half time, they were up 20 points 59-39 and had only made four three-point shots out of 15 attempts.
The big men made the difference; Joe Vogel, Riyadi’s seven-foot center scored 14, Calvin Warner 17 in the first half. The three-point shooters for Ittihad were at their worst ever making only 2 out of 18 tries from behind the arch in the half. They moved the ball and got open but just could not sink the baskets.
Riyadi’s coach Fouad Abu Shakra’s defensive plan worked well causing Ittihad to miss in the paint and turn the ball over. It was difficult to shoot over the towering Vogel who played well. Ittihad coach Daniel Maffei regrouped and changed plans. Americans Art Long and Marlon Parmer scored in the paint cutting the lead to 13 points in the third period. That was the best they could do.
Warner, Vogel and Ismail Ahmad for Riyadi made basket after basket inside and finished Ittihad off 99-75. Riyadi’s Warner had 37, Vogel 23, and Ahmed 20 points for the night. Ittihad just ran out of steam and out of 33 three-point shots attempted they made three that’s less than 10% of their outside shots.
For Ittihad Art Long scored, 34 and Marlon Parmer had 27 all under the basket shots. Without the outside shooting Ittihad was finished. This was the only game that the Ittihad starters did not score in double figures.
For third place the game was tight with many lead changes. RCA Casablanca’s high man was Hisham Amru Allah with 14 points. Al Kuwait ‘s Osama Al-Farhan had 18 and Chudney Gray 16.
