JEDDAH (Saudi Arabia) - Ittihad Club kept their grasp of the Group A top spot firmly following an 86-84 escape against Kazma in the 2025-26 FIBA WASL-Gulf League, Monday night at the Green Basketball Court.
The reigning Saudi Basketball League champions had to keep their heads on a swivel all the way to the last second to prevent any upset from happening toward notching their fourth win in five outings thus far.
Phil Greene nearly forced overtime when he split his free throws on purpose with 2.8 seconds left but none from the Kuwaiti visitors were able to complete a supposed three-point play, much to the relief of the home team.
Ittihad, as a result, would repeat against the same team it beat last October 27 in Kuwait City by way of a 92-81 decision, in the process inching themselves closer to finishing as the no. 1 team in their cluster.
"In the end, the most important thing is we won the game," said head coach Slobodan Subotic, who was far from satisfied with is charges' defense especially late. "And we are still in first position in our group."
The victory, furthermore, proved to be a statement of sorts that everything is A-OK for a squad that's expected to miss star forward Mohammed Almarwani for a significant amount of time due to an ACL injury.
New signing Elijah Thomas proved as much, with the American bruiser making a good account of himself in his WASL comeback after finishing with 25 points and a game-high 11 rebounds in 27 minutes.
Formerly of Sagesse SC and Al Ahli Club, the 29-year-old already had 12 points in the opening period alone, helping his new team take a good lead early before the regulars came together in the succeeding quarters.
Erick Neal fell just a rebound short of a triple-double with 18 points, 9 rebounds, and 14 assists. Mathna Almarwani supplied 12 points and 5 rebounds while Nasser Alabsi chipped in 11 points behind a 3-of-5 clip from deep.
The troika was key in giving the Tigers the breathing room it needed during the closing minutes, with Almarwani and Alabsi bannering a 9-2 rally to widen a precarious one-point lead to 83-75 with 1:47 remaining.
Neal would come in to help moments later, going perfect from the foul line with 19.6 seconds to go to make it a two-possession ball game in their favor, 85-81, before Greene and Kazma threatened in the dying moments.
"Every game matters. We approach every game the same - we want to win, we want to play defense. Today was an ugly game but we got the win, so we'll live with that," said Neal, who played all 40 minutes of the match.
Strahinja Micovic finished with 30 points and 8 rebounds to lead Kazma, who fell to their fourth straight loss and remained at the bottom of Group A with a 1-4 record, thus sending their Final Phse hopes flat-lining.
Ahmad Albaloushi provided 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists. Greene and Hussain Alkhabbaz added 14 apiece for a team that's without Abdulrahman Alshammari and Abdulaziz Mohsen due to Achilles injuries.
FIBA