RIYADI TOO MUCH FOR NLEX
DUBAI – Two-time champion Riyadi Sporting Club of Lebanon handed NLEX a 111-83 beating in Group A action of the 26th Dubai International Basketball Tournament being played at the Al Ahli Club here late Sunday evening (Monday morning Manila time).
The Road Warriors had opened with an 81-71 win over Al Ittihad of Libya on Friday, and much was expected from the Al Thornton-led team from the PBA. But the team from Lebanon simply took the match away right from the start and never looked back.
Back-to-back winners in Dubai way back in 2005 and 2006, the 2011 FIBA Asia club champions from Lebanon put up a perfect team show while shutting out the NLEX Road Warriors’ Thornton.
The Lebanese made their strategy pretty clear from the onset, and with a little over two minutes gone in the opening quarter they were comfortably ahead 10-0. But the Road Warriors came right back and overtook Riyadi 17-16 on a triple from Thornton with 2.51 minutes remaining in the first period.
The champions from Beirut, winners of the national title a record 24 times, re-grouped well and paid undue attention on cutting off Thornton. It was then left up to John Ramos to shoulder the scoring and he did a fine job topscoring with 14 points as Riyadi went into the halftime break with a 19-point cushion 55-36.
In an earlier match on Sunday, the UAE national team secured their second win in three games with a handy 80-78 clipping of Al Ittihad, Libya. It was Omar Qais once again topscoring for the hosts with 23 points, while Omar Khalid came up with timely support with 17 points and Salah Khalifa chipped in with 13 points. (photo by Jun Madriaga)
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