Dubai: Former champions Al Riyadhi of Lebanon booked their place in the final of the 19th Dubai International Basketball Championship for the United Holdings Cup with a powerful 91-87 win against Iran's Saba Batteries at the Al Ahli Club last night.

Al Riyadhi, winners here on two occasions in 2005 and 2006 before being denied a hattrick by Iranian side Mahram last year, were purposeful and that showed in their approach throughout the 40 minutes of play.

The Lebanese made their intentions clear from the outset with Ali Mahmoud, Scottie Thurman, Fadi Al Khatib and Egyptian pro Esmail Ahmad riding on some superb accurate shooting from outside the circle for an early 20-5 lead with just 4.30 minutes into the opening quarter.

No room

The smaller built Mahmoud was seldom seen making mistakes with his shooting as he alone matched the opponent's total with 12 points to his credit.

Saba Batteries tried to fight their way through the use of big man Garth Joseph, but the Al Riyadhi defence simply refused to give him any room to move. So tight was the defending that the 2.8 metre high-scoring forward had managed a measly four points by the end of the opening period as the Lebanese lads ran off with a 20-point lead 36-16.

The Iranians got more purposeful in the second quarter as they managed to keep the marauding Al Riyadhi shooters at bay with some stiff man to man marking.

This ploy worked for some time as Saba Batteries cut down the lead to 12 points at 41-29 with 4.30 minutes gone into the quarter. But that situation did not last for long as Al Khatib opened up with a three-pointer and Thurman continued to be a threat from outside the shaded area. Before going in for halftime all five Al Riyadhi players had moved into the double-figure bracket with Esmail Ahmad outgunning all scorers with 16 points and the score nestled at 55-37 in favour of the Lebanese side. The two sides went into the final quarter with just nine points separating them (76-67). Within three minutes of the final quarter, the complexion of the game changed with Dioumassi - who topscored with 30 - doing most of the damage from outside to cut down the lead to a mere four points (78-74).

However, that was as far as the Iranians could get and though they never gave up the fight, they had to eventually succumb to a superior team.

Al Riyadhi will play the winner of the second semifinal between Zain of Jordan and Al Jallaa of Syria at 7 pm this evening.