Muharraq keep heads up high despite flat start to FIBA WASL campaign

MANAMA (Bahrain) - None from Muharraq bowed their heads despite a rough start to their maiden FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL) campaign on Monday night.

“I am thinking that our team is promising.”

- Ahmed Jan, Head Coach, Muharraq

Despite the homecourt advantage, the Bahraini side received a rude welcome from the reigning Gulf League champions by way of a 108-92 result. Still, head coach Ahmed Jan remained proud of the stand his charges showed against a team as revered as their opponents.

"I would like to congratulate the Kuwait team. They were very consistent during the game. Everybody knows the Kuwait team, this group has been together for more than four years. I am very proud of my players, they fought until the end," he said during the postgame presser at the BBA Arena.

One of the league's newcomers, Muharraq actually made a good account of themselves early on, going toe-to-toe with Kuwait Club before ending the first quarter ahead, 28-27.

But it would all change come the next frame. With Tony Carr leading the way, the sub-zone titlists gradually shifted the momentum their way before entering the break up big, 53-38.

"We talked about the second quarter. The thing is they scored many points in transition. The Kuwait team's transition offense was better than us," said the seasoned mentor as the visiting team pulled off a blistering 21-4 run to finish the second quarter after trailing by two points.

Muharraq still tried to put up one last push in the fourth quarter - they actually won the period, 26-23 - but the defending sub-zone titlists were just too much to contain.

"In the fourth we tried to bring [ourselves into] the game back but if we play this good from the last three to four minutes, that will not be able to bring [us] back," said Mohamed Juma, who finished with 23 points for the home team. "Hopefully, we bounce back the next game."

Still, Jan liked what he saw particularly numbers-wise - the reason why he remained upbeat even with a losing debut. "If you see, our turnover ratio against them was better (8-14), we had 17 three-points made against [their] 15. It shows that the team is promising. I'm very proud," he said.

Well, it is only the first game, after all, and the bench tactician is full of optimism that he and the rest of Muharraq will only get better as the FIBA WASL season progresses.

"This is the game of basketball. At the end of the game, you can calculate a lot of things, you can say lots of things. But I am thinking that our team is promising. This is only the first game. We will have better opportunities," he said as they now set their sights on November 28 versus Al-Ahli Jeddah.

Juma echoed his coach's sentiments. "From the first game, we cannot see anything, what will happen next. We need to focus on ourselves and see our mistakes, review our game and game stats. And then we will know what were the mistakes and what we did short and we will bounce back."

FIBA