On a cold Friday morning, Al Ayoubi and Al Motabaqah teams were just too hot to handle as they came through with emphatic victories that propelled them to the early lead in the 2nd season of Ikhlas Basketball League (IBL).

In the first game, Al Ayoubi sustained the momentum from start to finish as they crushed the much bigger Yuksel 76-56.

Leading the way for Ayoubi was forward Valdez who tallied 14 points with 7 rebounds and 1 steal.

The second game was a battle between IBL veteran team Al Motabaqah Car Labs and Al Toukhi Thunders, one of the rookie teams.

The game was close during the first 2 quarters. Toukhi Thunders closed the first period with a 1 point lead, 14-13 and even extended it to 4 at the end of second quarter, 43-39.

But the second half was a turning point of the game. Motabaqah exploded for 27 big points in the 3rd period while limiting the Thunders to just 6 points.

The Thunders tried to regain the lead to start the 4th quarter but the veterans were on fire as they added 21 more points in the period against 18 for the rookies.

The scoreline was 74-53 in favor of Al Motabaqah. Jessie Quiambao top-scored with 18 points for the winning team.

The the evening games pitted Athathcom against Carrefour and SBMR against the Riyadh Warriors.

The Athathcom-Carrefour was roller-coaster with several deadlocks. The game remained close until the last five minutes of the fourth quarter, but Carrefour found a way to win by five points, 58-53. Orlando Bravo scored 16 points for Carrefour.

The last game was considered a battle of powerhouse teams. SBMR and Riyadh Warriors are two of the season’s favorite teams.

The game was intense until the end of the first half.

In the beginning of the third period, SBMR employed pressure defense relentlessly, forcing the Warriors to commit a lot of errors. Warriors trailed until the end of 4th quarter and SBMR prevailed by 100-88.

Palmero recorded 20 points for the winning team.