Season Opener Ends With Heartbreaking Loss
Thursday 08 Oct, 2009
After one of the most significant off seasons in Riyadi since the Champville player transfer, the season was finally underway. Riyadi started the season as usual at the Housam Din Hariri tournament, which always seems to have a mark by the host team!
However the start of the game was very disappointing to say the least. Jean Abdul Nour was one of the most important hits of the offseason, however in the starting minutes did not convert anything close to his potential. Matt Freiji who is arguably the best Lebanese player to ever play in Lebanon was expected to show a lot, however failed to do just that in the opening minutes. That left Alex, an out of shape player, along with Ali Mahmoud and a new import to try and carry the squad. The miscommunication between the players led to turnovers after each other. Seemingly all Riyadi could do is watch the Tunis team score easy hoop after the other. The opponents have been playing in their home league for quit a while now and where used to the season opener. They were focused, aggressive, and dead on sharp from three point land. This led to the giants being down 10 points late in the first quarter and down by 9 by the end of the quarter. Giving the full crowd very little to cheer about, and a lot of turnovers (8) to get pissed on.
The start of the second quarter showed R. Akl and Omar Turk our tank take on the court. Together they were aggressive defensively and forced turnovers with quick double teams on the perimeter of the 2-3 zone played by Coach Fouad. This led to a 10-0 run by the yellows and the difference was down to 1. But the Malaab players of Tunis displayed resilience and went on a run of their own. The last 30 seconds showed 2 consecutive turnovers by Riyadi and an easy basket to end the half on the other end with Riyadi down 46-41.
Unfortunately the start of the third was just like the start of the game. The difference became so large that at some point you would just give up hope. It was 13 by 5 minutes into. However, Omar came back in. and it seemed like with every touch he had something good would happen. A foul, a three, or a nice dish to an open team mate. Highlighted with a last second three by Omar Riyadi finally took its first lead since leading very early in the game 5-2. 68-66 was the score heading into the final stanza of the game.
The fourth quarter was a see-saw game. as the teams kept on exchanging leads and Matt proving what the NBA has taught him, and that is to be clutch with one basket after the other. With the 12th three of the game for the team from Tunis the lead was theirs once again at 77-75. But Omar answers again with a trey to give him 5 on the night. The see-saw game continued until something very rare happened and the home team lost the game after leading by as many as three with just around a minute left. Brown missed an easy lay up, and missed the potential game winner at the buzzer to give Riyadi a heartbreaking loss to start the season. Something us as Riyadi fans never thought would happen this way. The final score was 84-83.
Statistics (done by Ahmad Kerdi) :
· -Matt Freije: 22Pts, 7Rbs
· -Omar Turk: 22Pts, 3Rbs, 2Ass (5/10 on 3's)
· -Gerarld Brown: 15Pts
· -Alex Radojovic: 13Pts, 11Rbs ,2 Blocks,2 assts
· -Ali Mahmoud: 7Pts, 3Rbs, 4Ass
· -Jean Abdel Nour: 4Pts, 3Rbs, 1Ass
· -Ali Fakherdine: 2Pts, 6Rbs, 1Ass
· -Rodrigue Akl: 2Ass
By Jad Halabi |
