JEDDAH — Al-Ittihad took the first game of the best-of-five Saudi Premier Basketball League finals 76-73 over Al-Ahli here recently. Game two of the all-Jeddah finals, first in more than five years, will take place Thursday (May 19) at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Sports Complex. Ahli's imports started the scoring, but failed to keep up the pace. Ittihad answered with a well-balanced attack. All five starters scored and put Ittihad up 28-20 by the end of the first period. Ittihad outscored Ahli 23-17 in the second quarter, increasing the lead at half time to 51-37. Ahli held Ittihad to 13 points in the third quarter while adding 18 points to its total, ending the quarter 9 points behind Ittihad (64-55). Ittihad repelled a strong push from Ahli in the final quarter. Ahli tied the game twice in the last two minutes and lead by one point with only seconds left when Ittihad's Rashad Woods took over, went to the basket and getting fouled. He hit all four of the foul shots to send Ittihad up for good. Mathena Hassan was the hero for Ittihad, driving to the basket, hitting four three pointers, blocking three shots and leading the team in scoring 21 points. Imports Tony Haymon had 20 points and Rashad Woods 18. Jabber Al-Kabri added 9 and Mohammed Hassan 8 to round out the scoring. Ahli import's dominated the scoring. Point-guard Larry Blair finished with 30 points, with big man Brandon Brown adding 22. Mohammed Musa's 12 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assist helped keep Ahli in the game. The teams match up well against each other. Ahli's Larry Blair being the standout, who has scored 30 or more points per game all season long, needs some help from his teammates to get a win against a tough well-rounded Ittihad squad.
