Cup of joy for Manama

Manama continued their dominance over Muharraq as they sauntered to an 84-67 victory in the Super Cup basketball game at the Khalifa Sports City Arena last night. The Super Cup is an annual fixture, played at the start of every new season between the Zain Bahrain Basketball League champions and the winners of the Khalifa bin Salman Cup of the previous season. Since Manama won both the League and the Khalifa bin Salman Cup in the 2022-23 season with Muharraq their opponents in both the best-of-five League finals as well as the Cup final, the Super Cup featured the same two teams. And Manama started the game with aggressive intent, leading 21-17 at the end of the first quarter and 42-35 at half-time. Muharraq, then, managed to find some kind of rhythm in the third quarter and actually outscored Manama, 23-15, to eke out a one-point lead, at 58-57, when the fourth quarter began. When, right at the start of the fourth quarter, Muharraq’s Julius Coles Jr. (196-G-1989, college: Canisius) Jr made a two-point layup to give his side a three-point lead, at 60-57, it looked as if Manama might be under pressure. But they suddenly regained their momentum as Mustafa Husain scored a two-point driving layup followed by a two-point dunk by Travin Thibodeaux (203-F-1996, college: New Orleans). Mohammed Ameer joined in the act by sinking two free throws and, with seven minutes left in the game, Manama led 63-62. A couple of minutes later, Manama were well and truly in charge as they led, 70-62, thanks to a two-point layup by Thibodeaux and a two-point driving layup followed by a three-point jump shot by the excellent Sir'Dominic Pointer (198-G/F-1992, college: St.John's). Muharraq were now in complete disarray and Manama capitalised on their lack of intent by increasing their lead quickly through a three-point jump shot by Mustafa Husain and a two-point layup and a three-point jump shot by Ameer. The scoreboard now showed Manama leading by 16 points, at 78-62, with just under three minutes left and Muharraq had not been able to score since the Coles Jr two-pointer at the start of the quarter. Ameer, then, comfortably sank two free throws to make it 80-62 with two-and-a-half minutes left. A few seconds later, Muharraq finally managed to add to their tally through a Tyler Wilkerson (203-F-1988, college: Marshall) two-point layup but they still trailed by 16 points, at 80-64, with only about two minutes left. Half a minute later, Thibodeaux scored a two-point dunk to make it 82-64 for Manama and the issue was now beyond any doubt which meant that when Coles Jr scored the evening’s last points for Muharraq with a three-point pull-up jump shot, he hardly celebrated. A minute later, with 30 seconds left on the clock, Sir'Dominic Pointer easily sank two free throws before the buzzer sounded to put Muharraq out of their misery.
Courtesy of: gdnonline.com