Al Ahli-UAE bounced back in style from their opening game loss with a 97-82 drubbing of Smart Gilas-Philippines in front of a partisan Filipino crowd at the 24th Dubai International Basketball Championship at Al Ahli Club on Saturday night.
Al Ahli, who finished second last year, dominated the entire match after establishing an eight-point advantage, 26-18, at the end of the first and never relinquished the lead with their suffocating defence. They padded their lead to 19 points, 51-32, before the break and then to 21 points, 79-58, going in to the final quarter.
“We came out with real intensity. We focused on our defence and it put us in a good position to dominate the match,” Al Ahli’s American import Leroy Hurd said.
Al Ahli’s German coach Peter Schomers added: “I’m happy we stepped up intensity. We really did not know what happened to us in our first game but we played very well tonight.
“We tried to keep up with the speed (of Smart Gilas) and put a lot of pressure on them and did not give them easy shots,” he added.
Smart Gilas tried to make a short rally in the middle of the fourth quarter and trimmed the deficit to 14 points from as high as 22, but Omar Khalid fired a three-pointer to thwart the attack.
“We were outplayed,” Smart Gilas assistant coach Jong Uichico said. “We were not able to take advantage of our quickness.”
American imports Leemire Goldwire and Hurd led Al Ahli with 24 and 21 points respectively, followed by Cheikh Samb with 18 and Khalid with 14 while Younis Khamis added nine markers.
Only Garvo Lanete and KG Canaleta scored in double digits for Smart Gilas with 12 and 10 points respectively while naturalised Filipino Marcus Douthit added nine.
Al Ahli will next meet Mouttahed Lebanon while Smart Gilas will face Sporting Aramex Jordan on Monday.
Meanwhile, Al Riyadi Lebanon trounced the UAE National team 102-71.
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