MANAMA (Bahrain) - Winning does change everything and that's precisely the case for Muharraq Club after the FIBA WASL returnees finally broke through in the 2025-26 Gulf League competitions Monday night.
The defending Bahrain Premier League champions accomplished as much following an upset of the erstwhile unbeaten Ittihad Club and the credit goes to their renewed confidence after succeeding at home recently.
"It really helped us, winning the Super Cup, for tonight's game. We came up with good energy," offered Bader Malabes after their 84-79 victory against last season's Sub-Zone League runners-up at the BBA Arena.
The Red Wolves conquered the 2025 BBA Super Cup just last week after beating familiar foes - and the first-ever WASL champions - Manama by way of a pulsating 76-71 result in the Final held in the very same venue.
Malabes himself was crucial in the contest, knocking down a booming trifecta down the stretch to help his side repel their rivals' fightback en route to ruling the tournament that serves as a prelude to the season proper.
They then resumed their WASL campaign days later, and were able to carry over the momentum as evidenced by their strong start in which Muharraq drained seven threes in just the first quarter to build a 36-22 lead.
The veteran floor general scored all of his 6 points in the said period, including one of three successive triples - the others courtesy of Kerwin Roach and Daniel Hamilton - that powered a 15-0 run toward a 30-13 advantage.
"After losing the first two games in WASL, our next game was the Super Cup. We had to taste winning so that coming into this game, we have a different [aura]," said Malabes, who also had 3 steals in the win.
It wasn't all smooth-sailing, though, as Ittihad came back and imposed a major threat in the second half. But the charges of Coach Peter Schomers showed much better poise - just like what they did against Manama.
With the game tied at 79-all approaching the last two minutes, Hamilton broke it up with a three-point play, before Mohammed Ameer came through and struck the dagger with 24.3 seconds left to seal the deal.
"I would like to say that we did some things better," lauded Schomers, who finally scored his first WASL win with the ball club. "We had some really good fastbreaks, we had some good stops when it counted."
Malabes, for his part, was simply glad that Muharraq were able to come out triumphant in this 'must-win' clash against their Saudi Basketball League counterparts entering the second half of their Group Phase campaign.
The Red Wolves improved to 1-2 in Group A following the result, finally getting on board after being left as the lone winless team in the Sub-Zone League heading into the match.
"Of course, we didn't want to enter the Second Round of WASL 0-3. It's a must-win, no doubt. All the players, coaching staff, we emphasized on that, that it's a must-win," the 38-year-old said.
"Thank God we got it entering the Second Round," he closed.
FIBA