BY: Fiba-Asia
MANILA, Philippines (22nd FIBA Asia Champions Cup): Al Riyadi Beirut reserved their best for the end and unleashed a 20-9 run in the final ten minutes – including a 8-3 advantage in the Overtime – to beat last year’s runners-up Al Rayyan 78-73 in a needle Group B game on Tuesday.
Rodrigue Akl (dark jersey in pic above), on loan from Anibal for this competition, capped a 12-6 Riyadi run in the final five minutes to lock the game at 70-all at the end of Regulation time.
And in the extended period, Akl pulled down three of Riyadi’s defensive rebounds to deny Rayyan any extra room.
“Am I lucky to have thought of borrowing him!” wondered Riyadi coach Fouad Abouchakra.
“In these two games, he (Akl) has been a real worthy,” he added connecting Akl’s contribution to regular point guard Ali Mahmoud’s absence – due to a sore back – in the last two games.
“Like yesterday (when Riyadi beat defending champions Mahram 76-73), my team played a lot together. They stood up for each other when chips were down, and I think that was the key to our win today,” he added.
Down by six points – by 9 at one point in time in the second quarter – Riyadi did more than well to hold their own.
“We missed out on their offensive rebounds,” bemoaned Rayyan coach Brian Rowsom.
Riyadi had a 21-13 offense rebound advantage – in an overall 50-37 boards.
Ismail Ahmad led Riyadi’s scoring with 24 points, including 4 in the Overtime.
The Egyptian also had a dozen rebounds.
“It was a very physical game, especially after last night’s game it was a struggle for us,” Ahmad said.
“This is a lesson for us not to drop our guard. But I thought we lost a one-ball game,” said Rowsom.
After Akl had tied the score, Rayyan had 15.3 secs on the clock, but the Rowsom’s men chose to go to the perimeter to attempt, from where Omer Salem managed only to hit the rim.
“Well, you get some and you don’t get some. Can’t really do much wasting sleep on that. We gotta prepare for tomorrow,” said Rowsom.
Rayyan take on defending champions Mahram – who rested on Tuesday – on the morrow with Riyadi lining up against Al Jala’a.
Fiba-Asia
