The first game of the final day at the West Asia Qualifying Tournament was the 5th/6th classification game between hosts Jordan and UAE, who had a disappointing tournament after promising much early on but could not deliver. An even first period had Jordan up by two at the change. In an error-ridden second quarter, Jordan allowed their lead to slip and it was the UAE who were able to go to the halftime break up by 11. The UAE continued to hassle Jordan, and when power forward Osama Abukhater was ejected from the game, the Jordanians lost focussed and allowed UAE to go to the final change leading by 26. Jordan re-grouped in the final quarter and put some structure back into their game and got them back on track, but it was too late as UAE held on to win, 46-36.
The Emirate’s captain Mohamed Alzarooni had it all his own way without Abukhater to pressure him and finished with a 26 point high. Jordan shared their scoring with Ossama Abuloeed reaching double figures to be their best.
The next game was the 3rd/4th play-off between Kuwait, who were wanting to redeem themselves for yesterday’s shock defeat at the hands of Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain, who were wanting to prove that they deserved to have got this far into the tournament. Only one point separated the teams after the first period, but Kuwait asserted themselves in the second with high percentage scoring and held Bahrain to only 5 points for the quarter. The momentum stuck with Kuwait in the third, and Kuwait held a comfortable 18-point lead going into the fourth. The last quarter Kuwait relaxed and were happy to trade baskets to finish up easy winners, 66-45.
Again Kuwait shared the points with only Alzarooni (10) in double figures. For Bahrain Nabeel Aldoseri worked hard all day for his 15 points, the rest were spread across the team.
In the final game, and gold medal game of the tournament, undefeated Iraq started as favourites against Saudi Arabia, but it was the Saudis who started the stronger, jumping out to a 7 point lead. However, Saif Al Taie again steadied the ship for Iraq scoring eight first quarter points to give them a 3 point lead at quarter time. The second period was all Iraq, with Hayder Al Sarraji and Al Taie both scoring nine for the quarter to increase Iraq advantage to 17 at the half. They continued to increase their lead by four in the third, and simply went basket for basket in the last to win the final by 21 point winners. Final score 64-43.
Al Taie and Al Sarraji finished with, 27 and 23 respectively, to dominate the scoresheet, while Essam Buayti’s 15 points and Adbul Bin Shaylan’s 12 points did most of the scoring for the Saudis.
Final Standings:
Iraq
Saudi Arabia
Kuwait
Bahrain
UAE
Jordan
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