Beirut Club dominate in Amman to remain the only undefeated team in Group A

AMMAN (Jordan) - Beirut Club dominate Orthodox Amman in Jordan 87-58 to remain as the lone undefeated team in WASL - West Asia Group A.

The home team jumped out to a strong 10-2 run to start the game, powered by the solid play and shooting of Mohammad Hussein. Orthodox Amman started the game with energy and seemed to have caught the visiting Beirut Club asleep.

But it didn’t take much for Beirut Club to wake up. When they did, the Lebanese club shifted to the highest gear and never looked back. After falling behind early on, Beirut Club exploded for 16 unanswered points and ended the first quarter with an 18-2 run. The deficit never went back down to single-digits again as the lead kept growing until the final buzzer.

Ali Haidar led the charge on offense for Beirut Club once again with 25 points to go with 7 rebounds. However, four other players also ended up scoring in double-digits - Cleveland Thomas Jr. (12 points), Elias Ruston (12 points), Ken Horton (11 points), and Gerard Hadidian (10 points).

For Orthodox Amman, it was Hussein who led the team with 14 points while also recording 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 steals. In the second half, the offense was picked up by Asraf Alhendi who had 10 points of his own.

Game Heroes: Haidar ended up leading Beirut Club in scoring and was crucial in building up the crucial run in the first quarter. However, he did not do it alone as the tandem between Haidar (8 points) and Gerard Hadidian (6 points) combined for 14 of the 16 unanswered points.

Also to not be overlooked is the veteran leadership of Elias Rustom who helped control the game both on and off the court. The 35-year-old did impress with 12 points in this game, but also managed to help set the tempo throughout the contest.

Turning Point: They say that teams tend to make runs when they come fresh out of the halftime break. Omar Jamaleddine made sure that Orthodox Amman would have none of that momentum in the second half when he knocked down a three-pointer at the 7:41 mark and followed that up by emphatically blocking an attempt by Freddy Ibrahim at the rim.

Stats Don't Lie: Beirut Club followed the trend of ZobAhan who had earlier won a game by moving the ball along the players on the floor and recorded 26 assists for 31 field-goals made.

Meanwhile, Orthodox Amman continues to struggle from the floor. They were able to get away with a poor shooting game against Al-Ittihad Ahli last week and while they did a bit better by shooting 37.3 percent against Beirut Club, turning the ball over 23 times is rarely going to help a team win games.

FIBA