JEDDAH: Al-Ittihad and Ohud took big headstarts in their best-of-three semifinals against Al-Hilal and Al-Ahli, winning by 93-65 and 81-67, respectively, in the Top Eight Basketball Championship at the Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Sports Complex here yesterday.
Ittihad on Saturday beat Ansar 83-65 to top Group A with a clean 3-0 win-loss record and set up a two out of three series against Hilal, which qualified No. 2 from Group B.
Ohud beat Hilal for the Group B top spot on Friday with an 89-85 victory. Ahli sealed the second spot of Group A by beating Fath 95-82 Saturday.
The powerful Ittihad team was down by seven points in the first quarter 23-16. At halftime Hilal was leading 48-42.
In the second half Ittihad pulled away from Hilal and finished the third period up, 67-57. The last quarter went by quickly with Ittihad making their case to move on to the finals.
Top players for Ittihad were Marlon Palmer with 27 points and 5 assists. Ismail Ahmad had 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Ali Magrabi had 17 points and 16 rebounds. Hilal’s high scorer was Kevin Sowell with 19 points , 8 rebounds and 4 assists. Ahmad Samanter had 16 points. Hilal went cold in the second half.
Ittihad knocked out Ansar with that 83-65 win, giving Ahli a free ride to the final four that rendered Ahli’s win over Fath moot and academic.
Prior to Saturday’s games Ansar beat Fath 83-73 to stay alive with a chance to advance to the semifinals. Ansar led by one at the end of the first quarter 16-15. Ansar went on a run and outscored Fath 33-8 in the second period to be out front 49-23.
Fath fought hard and outscored Ansar in the next two periods but came up short by 10 and lost its second game. Ayman Bilal had 25 and Hausawi 16 for Ansar.
For Fath Rashaad Powell had 34 and Yaya Ja 26 points.
Ittihad claimed its second straight win on Friday at the expense of Ahli 85-78.
Ahli took the early lead 21-16 after one period and enjoyed a 40-39 edge at halftime. Ittihad took over in the third and fourth quarters using its inside game to win pulling away.
