 In their first appearance since 1998 in the West Asian Clubs Basketball Championship which is being held in Iran until March 15, 2008, Riyadi struggled against the Jordanian Zain but managed to reach the happy ending scoring a valuable win (64-63). This game was the first take on the Asian Championship for Coach Fouad Abu Chakra and his team who reaped a wide range of championships in recent years.
Coach Fouad Abou Chakra started the game with Joe Vogel, Fadi Al-Khatib, Ali Mahmoud, Ismail Ahmad and Mazen Mniemneh. The beginning of the match witnessed major conflicts under the basket and coach Abu Chakra tried to resolve the problem early through zone defense, but Zain wasn’t affected even with the absence of its key players Osama Douglas and Enver Subzochov. The first quarter ended with a tie (22-22).
Riyadi got hit pretty badly when playmaker Ali Mahmoud and center Hussein Tawbi both got injured and had to be replaced, putting more pressure on the their teammates who slowly saw themselves falling behind at half time (38-35). IN the third quarter, Riyadi changed their defense strategy to box-and-1, in which Mazen Mneimneh successfully took the role of guarding Zain’s star Nate Johson (19 pts) but many missed three point shots and turnovers, gave the opportunity to Zain to incread their lead to (52-48). The star of the game, Fadi Al Khatib who was shining with 33 points, was able to put Riyadi back on track in the final quarter and turn the numbers around giving the champions of Lebanon a very valuable tough win of 1 point (64-63).
By Mohamad B. Chenawi |
