Kuwait Club unbothered even as streak ends: 'It's a good loss for us'

KUWAIT CITY (Kuwait) - Kuwait Club head coach Peter Schomers lamented how the team took Muharraq lightly, which ultimately led to a stinging home defeat on Monday night.

The decorated coach said that the defending Gulf League champions didn't give their Bahraini counterparts enough respect in the rematch, and that indeed proved costly as it ended their unbeaten 13-game winning streak that dates back to Season 1 of the pan-regional tilt.

"I just told the team; I think we just didn't respect that team enough," he offered during the postgame press conference of their 101-96 loss at the Shaikh Saad Alabdullah Sport Hall Complex, which brought their record to 4-1 in Group A of the sub-zone league.

Schomers disclosed that his team only had two days to prepare against Muharraq, but he refuses to pin the blame on it, practically saying that Kuwait Club beat themselves with the way they responded after seeing the circumstances of the visiting side.

Aside from the fact that it's transitioning under a new head coach, Muharraq missed Austin Daye and Ra'Shad James, leaving Tyler Wilkerson as their sole reinforcement.

"They show up with one foreigner; we have three; we have a deeper squad; we can rotate; so there's no way we should lose that game when you go into that game," said the German coach.

The game actually showed some resemblance to their first encounter when the home team took the lead in the second half to head into the break ahead, 51-43.

But Muharraq were just too bent on not allowing any repeats to take place, engaging in a tight third quarter before finding a way to take control of the match in the fourth.

Veteran playmaker Bader Malabes showed the way with 34 points, but fellow leaders Mohamed Juma and Ali Mohamed were key as well, finishing with 25 and 15 points, respectively, in the victory that saw the squad shoot 46 percent from beyond the arc.

For Schomers, their opponents ably earning confidence to shoot was also Kuwait Club's own doing. "The way they played that game was without any pressure. They shot almost 50 percent from three, which made a big difference, of course," he offered.

In all fairness, his team did fight in the closing minutes and even got to within a point, 97-96, behind Mohamad Hasan's triple with 5.2 seconds left. But it was too late.

"By the time we took them seriously in the last three minutes, they did a great job, and they deserved to win the game. They finished out the game," he said.

"And to be honest, I didn't think we're going to lose the game with five, six minutes to go," he added as his wards got so close to their foes after trailing, 93-84, with 3:28 remaining. "I didn't believe it. Maybe some of my players were in the same position."

Still, Schomers and Co. aren't bowing their heads, all of them agreeing in unison that it's actually a 'good loss' since it can only help the rest of the crew grow better moving forward.

"That's why I think it's a good loss for us," he opined. "It came at the right time. Nothing happened in terms of positioning; we're still in first place. I just told the team that it's much more important how we react to this game than anything else."

"And that means we have to evaluate ourselves, we have to be self-critical, and we have to get better and get back to where we can be," he added.

Cady Lalanne agreed. "I'd rather lose now than lose later, just as a learning curve, so we could realize that every team is coming in and trying to beat us," he said.

FIBA