JEDDAH, 22 May 2007 — Al-Riadi of Lebanon won by forfeiture over Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ahli yesterday in a tumultuous finals in the ART-sponsored 20th Arab Basketball Federation Championship at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Stadium here.
The officials from the organizing Saudi Basketball Federation stopped the game with still seven minutes to play when the highly partisan fans began throwing objects to the floor and Al-Riadi ahead by 22 points, 90-68.
Prince Talal ibn Badr, president of SBF, awarded the championship trophy to Riadi during the prize distribution ceremony. Named the tournament’s Best Player was Ismael Ahmed of the champion team. Al-Ittihad’s Tony Madison claimed the Best 3-Point Shooter award and Ahli’s Curtis Haywood the Highest Scorer plum.
Using an efficient outside shooting the Lebanese dominated the game all the way to successfully defend the title in the tournament where they lost just one game, a meaningless 83-71 defeat by Morocco’s Raja’a in the quarterfinals, en route to the finals. The finals was, well, a mismatch of a contest with the powerhouse Riadi showing they are in a different league and building a 23-point lead, 67-44, at the half.
Ahli, who reached the finals after beating archrival Al-Ittihad 97-94 in the second semifinal game on Sunday, did their best to try and mount a challenge against the visitors.
But they fell short as the Lebanese shot an amazing 58 per cent from the field.
Ittihad beat Kuwait of Kuwait 95-92 in the battle for third place in the first game.
Tony Madison scored a game-high 33 points including two free throws that guaranteed the win for Ittihad. Priest Lauderdale added 21 pints and Ali Maghrabi made 19 points.
Madison made the two foul shots in the last 16 seconds to put Ittihad to safety 95-92 after Kuwait had come to within 93-92 in the game where the sides traded baskets with impunity in the last three minutes.
The first half ended with Ittihad ahead at 53-49. Mutari led Kuwait, who lost to Riadi in the semifinals, with 19 points. Brandon Crump contributed 18 points and 10 rebounds while former Ittihad player Shamgod tossed in 15 points.
