Media Center (Riyadh)
Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ittihad team achieved its first victory in the West Asia Super League (Final8) finals in the second match after defeating Astana of Kazakhstan with a score of 79-76, within the matches of the first group, which includes the two Lebanese giants, Al Riyadi and Al Hikma, at the Nihad Nofal Sports Complex in Beirut.
Start of the Match
Al-Ittihad entered the match with a lineup consisting of: Mohammed Al-Marwani, Abdulrahman Fallatah, Nasser Al-Absi, Majok Deng, Kieron DeShields.
While Astana of Kazakhstan entered with a lineup consisting of: Rustam Murzagaliyev, American TJ Starks, Vadim Scherbak, Ruslan Atkali, and Russian Andrei Desiatnikov.
The match began with a scoring competition between the two teams, with each team exploiting its strengths and dangers. The Kazakh team relied on its physical structure and significant height difference, while Al-Ittihad exploited its quick movement and took the lead in intercepting the ball and possessing it, showing the positivity of Al-Ittihad’s entry with this lineup. The match continued with this parity until the first quarter ended with Astana leading 23-21.
Second Quarter
Al-Ittihad returned strongly in the second quarter, exploiting all available strengths and the Al-Ittihad coach Captain Slobodan Subotić’s excellent reading of the match, which made Al-Ittihad excel in the result and advance in most of the second quarter, with the emergence of many players in a distinctive way, with which they finished the first half of the match with a lead of 39-35.
Third Quarter
The match continued as it began with a great technical convergence between the two teams and the emergence of the bench players who did a great job in keeping up with the experience and strength of the Kazakh team, which has 3 foreign professionals in its ranks, one of them American and 2 from Russia, while Al-Ittihad plays with only two professionals, until the third quarter ended with Al-Ittihad leading 61-57.
Fourth Quarter… Quarter of Decision
The coach of the Astana team, the Russian Gleb Platov, entered relying on the short players in the face of Al-Ittihad’s superiority in this point and succeeded greatly, as the Russian professional Andrei Desiatnikov, the tallest player in the tournament with a height of 220 cm, was able to score 4 consecutive points and tie the score at 76-76.
Before the end of the match by seven seconds, the American professional in the Al-Ittihad team, Kieron DeShields, excelled by scoring a decisive three-pointer, with which he ended the hopes of the Kazakh team and announced Al-Ittihad’s victory with a score of 79-76 and revived his hopes of qualifying for the second round.
Al Riyadi Defeats Al Hikma
In the Beirut derby, the popular match between Al Riyadi, the title holder, and Al Hikma of Lebanon, the match ended with an overwhelming victory for Al Riyadi with a score of 101-71.
The Last Match Against the Title Holder
Al-Ittihad will meet Al Riyadi of Lebanon in its third and final match in the group the day after tomorrow, Wednesday, at 8:45 PM Saudi time, preceded by the match between Al Hikma of Lebanon against Astana of Kazakhstan at 5:45 PM .
