Antranik to face Al Wahda in women's basketball final

Dubai: Antranik of Lebanon will clash with Al Wahda of Syria in the final of the 13th Women's Arab Clubs Basketball Championship today.

The defending champions from Lebanon got the better of Olympic Club, Algeria 78-62 in a bruising semifinal, while Al Wahda got past Sporting Club of Alexandria, Egypt 82-71 in an equally-tight second semifinal last night.

The final will be played at Al Ahli Club at 7.30pm tonight, and will be preceded by the play-off for the third place between Olympic Club and Sporting at 5.30pm.

Leading the march for the defending champions was their foreign duo of America's Melshika Bowman and Adeola Olanrewaju from Nigeria with 22 and 16 points respectively. But also chipping in were the local girls Nayla Eldine, Jessica Nazarian, Rima Naja and namely Shada Nasr, who in fact outscored all with 24 points.

"It was a tough match as every team wants to defeat the defending champions," Antranik coach Shafiq Akiki said after the match.

"But it is not that we were not ready for the Algerians. We knew they play very physical and we had prepared ourselves for such an onslaught," he added.

While the Olympic Club girls relied heavily on a more physical game, the Lebanese did well to counter them on swift turnovers. Making a telling difference in the proceedings was Shada Nasr with her brilliant shooting from outside the area.

Shada Nasr had a couple of triples by the end of the first quarter, and that was the difference between the two teams as the Lebanese led 25-11.

Antranik slowed down on their scoring in the second quarter, mainly because coach Akiki was forced to pull out Bowman after being pulled up for two successive personal fouls.

But that did not stop the hard-working Olanrewaju from being very effective from under the basket to keep the scoreboard moving at a steady pace. And by halftime, the Lebanese were cruising comfortably at 45-24.

That afforded an opportunity for coach Akiki to push in some of his young players, notably Nazarian, Christelle Halouhi and Rima Naja. Relying a lot on their aggressive forward Kanza Faroumi, who topscored for them with 27 points, the Algerians managed to cut down on the lead.

But not for long, as Olanrewaju and Bowman stepped back on court to keep control and stay clear at 64-37 at the end of the third quarter.

Sporting took a 39-34 lead against Al Wahda as the teams went in for halftime. However, with Anna Agnieszka and Kausati Jurgita combining well both in offence and defence, Al Wahda managed to sail past the Egyptians 82-71 on the final hooter.

Results