Al-Ahly of Egypt overcame a five-point deficit in the third quarter to secure a well-deserved victory against Maghreb de Tanger from Morocco with a score of 71-85, after an impressive performance in the final quarter. The Moroccan team struggled due to declining fitness levels and personal fouls committed by players, which hindered their ability to keep pace with the Egyptians. Al-Ahly had finished the first half with a narrow lead of one point at 41-40 and trailed in the third quarter 63-58. However, experience played a crucial role in the decisive half, allowing Al-Ahly to score 27 points against only 8 for the Moroccan team.
Notably, Al-Ahly's offensive rebounds reached 28 while their defensive rebounds were only 26, which helped the team to increase their point differential with their distinctive offensive style, maintaining their lead in the fiercely competitive Group D, in anticipation of their clash with Beirut to conclude the preliminary round tomorrow.
In the same group, Beirut achieved their second consecutive victory against Al-Ittihad of Libya with a score of 81-102, dominating all four quarters with scores of 18-28, 25-26, 23-27, and 16-21. Beirut hit 9 three-pointers out of 26 attempts from beyond the arc compared to the Libyan team's 5 out of 20 attempts. Jean Marc, the Beirut player, recorded the highest score of 23 points, just one point ahead of his teammate Sergio Darwish, a star of the Lebanese national team.
In Group A, the defending champions Kuwait maintained their lead after defeating the host Qatar 54-82, asserting their dominance in the new edition and their determination not to relinquish the title they won at home last year. Also, in the same group, Al-Muharraq from Bahrain achieved a significant victory over Al-Birej Services from Palestine with a score of 86-110.
Furthermore, the Secretary-General of the Arab Federation, Major General Abdullah Shalabi, praised the organization of the tournament and the cooperation of the Qatari Federation and the host club in overcoming all obstacles to present an unprecedented exceptional edition. He mentioned that the competitive level is rising from round to round, indicating that the race for the title will be intense among the competing teams.
Today, there are six matches scheduled, starting with Al-Ahly of Qatar, who are exiting the tournament, facing Al-Ittihad of Alexandria, the leader of Group B at 2 PM Qatar time. In parallel in Group D, Maghreb de Tanger faces Al-Ittihad of Libya, while at 4:30 PM, Al-Sib from Oman will meet Dynamo from Lebanon and Sala from Morocco faces Al-Fateh from Saudi Arabia. At 7 PM, Al-Jazira of Iraq plays Beirut, and Al-Birej Services plays Kuwait.
