Kuwait Club flex experience, beat Al Rayyan to go 2-0

KUWAIT CITY (Kuwait) - Experience was simply the difference as Kuwait Club dealt the visiting Al Rayyan an 85-62 beatdown to remain unbeaten in the FIBA WASL-Gulf League Season 2, Monday night at the Shaikh Saad Alabdullah Sport Hall Complex.

The reigning Sub-Zone League champions jumped to an early lead and never looked back as they handed the rebuilding Qatari side a lesson on staying consistent all 40 minutes on the way to solidifying their hold of Group A leadership with a 2-0 record.

Game heroes: Seemingly inspired by his brother Hamad's spectacular showing in their season opener last November 13, Mohammad Hasan made it his show this time as he led the way with 20 points, spiked by a quartet of three-pointers, alongside 6 rebounds.

Cady Lalanne was as reliable once more with his 18 points and 10 rebounds. Ditto with Turki Alshemmari and Marcus Georges-Hunt as they supplied 16 and 15 points, respectively.

Hamad, of course,  helped out in the rout as he brought 11 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, and a steal.

STEP AHEAD Player of the Game: Mohammad rightfully earned STEP AHEAD Player of the Game honors as he shot an efficient 8-of-13 from the floor and tallied a game-high EFF rating of 23.
 

Turning point: Al Rayyan got to within three late in the first quarter but Mohammad caught fire shortly after, nailing back-to-back triples to star in an 8-0 run that enabled Kuwait Club to end the period with a 21-10 advantage. They would remain in control the rest of the way.

Stats don't lie: Kuwait Club dished the ball better and ended up with 23 assists, far from the 9 their undermanned counterparts had - they faced a team that only had nine players. That lack of personnel enabled the home team to feast inside the paint, scoring 40.

They said: "We never found our flow. Some of the guys who are usually more reliable in terms of scoring like Tony and Cady, they get really bad days but the more I'm happy for Mo. Mo had a great game, he scored 20 points, and shot great. Turki played a very good game, Hamad played a great game. So, this is what made the difference in this game, those three local players. It's a good win--it's a different win but it's a good win for us, knowing that we don't have to rely on all three of our foreigners, and still win." - Peter Schomers, Head Coach, Kuwait Club.

"Even in the first game I started pretty hot, and then my brother picked up the slack. It's not something that I'm consciously doing aggressively, it's more of my teammates finding me and trusting me to make the shots." - Mohammad Hasan, Kuwait Club

"The big lesson for us is the young players, they need these tough games because they'll be better and this is the reality. The lesson is big for these guys." - Stergios Koufos, Head Coach, Al Rayyan

"I felt like we got out to a slow start and we kinda dug ourselves into a hole. Like, early. And then we made a run late, but there were just crucial moments in the game that we didn;t capitalize on and they made shots. It's hard to cut the lead down when we're making mistakes and they're pretty much hitting shots." - Shamorie Ponds, Al Rayyan

FIBA