Dubai: The UAE national basketball team scored one of their biggest wins ever when they clinched the Gulf Cup basketball tournament, beating mighty Qatar 69-64 in an action-packed final at the Al Nasr Club on Wednesday night.
The UAE team bagged eight points from four wins without losing a match to secure first place and the gold medal. Qatar won the silver with seven points while Kuwait finished third for the bronze.
Bahrain won the fourth place play-off, defeating Oman 67-47 in a game played prior to the final. Oman finished at the bottom after losing all four matches.
"It was a miracle that we won the gold by beating the strong Qatari team who have a lot of experience after playing in the World Cup and Asian Cup finals," said a delighted UAE coach Zoran Zupcevic.
"Before the final, I told the players to enjoy the game and to fight until the last second despite the fact that Qatar is one of the strongest teams in Asia and of course the GCC countries."
The UAE players celebrated the great victory by hoisting Zupcevic in the air amid joyous scenes.
The victory was an excellent compensation for the poor form that the basketball team had shown in the Asian Games held last month in Doha when they went out in the preliminary round and returned to Dubai even before the Games officially began.
On Wednesday night, they fought hard to beat the experienced Qatari players who were taller and fitter. However, the brave UAE players showed no signs of fear and their weapons were their fighting spirit, enthusiasm and high morale.
All the players were stars and they executed their roles perfectly.
Ayoub Abbas and Ebrahim Khalfan were outstanding in the attack and scored 33 points between them, which helped keep the UAE in front.
The hosts led most of the first quarter to 20-16 when the experienced Qataris levelled and led 21-20. In the second quarter, Ayoub scored a three pointer to give UAE the lead.
Despite that, the Qataris led by four points before Ebrahim Khalfan scored a three-pointer in the last five seconds to give UAE the lead at 37-36 at the end of the second quarter.
Qatar widened the gap to five points with fine efforts by Erfan Ali and Yasin Esmail at the start of the third quarter, but Qasim Mohammad and Ayoub's three pointers gave UAE a crucial 53-50 lead.
The experienced Qataris changed their style but Ayoub, Jasem Abdul Redha and Ali Hattawi helped the UAE build up an eight-point cushion by the middle of the fourth and final quarter.
The UAE players kept the lead and never looked back. Jasem Abdul Redha's three pointer made it 67-58 with eight seconds left on the clock before Ebrahim Khalfan sealed victory for the UAE.
