Beirut Club knock out ZobAhan, secure remaining West Asia ticket to WASL FInal 8

BEIRUT (Lebanon) - Beirut Club secured the remaining WASL Final 8 ticket via West Asia after their 93-75 beatdown of ZobAhan in the Third-Place Game, Wednesday night at the Nouhad Nawfal Sports Complex in Zouk Mikael.

The home team pulled away in the third quarter and never allowed their foes to gain any sort of momentum in staging a rally, eventually completing the sub-zone's three-team contingent bound for the awaited cagefest in June.

Game heroes: Ali Haidar finished with a season-high 28 points, including 15 in the first half, and 6 rebounds to lead Beirut Club although it wasn't all the veteran as he received huge boosts from the returning Shabazz Muhammad and Jordan Jackson.

Now looking to staying longer with the ball club, Muhammad announced his comeback with a double-double of 24 points and 10 rebounds.

Jackson, on the other hand, submitted a full line of 22 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, a game-high 4 steals, and 2 blocks, showing that he's at maximum health now after suffering a knee injury in their Semi-Finals opener against Al Riyadi.

And such a performance by the athletic guard from Texas earned him STEP AHEAD Player of the Game honors.

The troika's sterling performance put to waste the efforts of Arsalan Kazemi for ZobAhan as he had 10 points, a WASL-record 20 rebounds, and 8 assists.

Turning point: Beirut Club lost the second quarter and only held a slim one-point lead at the half, but the aforementioned trio joined hands for a 21-4 run en route to a commanding 62-44 lead with 4:21 remaining in the third canto.

Stats don't lie: Beirut Club shot 52-percent from the floor, with much of the credit going to the way they shared the ball as the crew had 21 assists. They also generated 20 points from the 13 turnovers their Iranian counterparts committed.

They said: "Since we are the champions of last season in Lebanon, the expectations are high from the club and from us the coaching staff and the players. Reaching WASL Final 8 is a first step in achieving the targets that we are putting for the team ... for the club, it's an amazing step that we are doing now. We are looking forward to competing in the Final 8. I believe it's going to be a tough one, so we have to be extremely ready to compete with the other teams." - Ahmad Yamout, Head Coach, Beirut Club

"I was fortunate enough that the timing was great. I was in China and we lost in the quarterfinals ... so it was literally a two-day turnaround to get cleared and everything else. But I love playing with this team. I really think we can do something in the Final 8 and in the Lebanese league, too. I was really excited about coming back here. I'm ready to get to work more, and win some more." - Shabazz Muhammad, Beirut Club

"The guys have been doing a really good job staying positive with me, and just telling me to keep going and learning the offense. It's a new team for me coming over from another team, so being able to learn the offense and jelling with everybody, everything's finally coming together now." - Jordan Jackson, Beirut Club

"I just felt like they might have wanted it more than us. But at the end of the day, it's still a learning experience for the near future for us, and were just gonna get better and better." - Amir Tousarani, ZobAhan

FIBA