Basketball teams bow to UAE

Bahrain continued its disappointing run in the men's basketball tournament of the inaugural GCC Games yesterday, following a tough 84-93 loss to the UAE at Shaikh Isa Sports City in Riffa. The defeat was the Bahrainis' third in a row, and it left them with a severely deteriorating chance of claiming the bronze medal in the competition. To keep their hopes alive, they need to beat both Kuwait today and then Oman on Tuesday by big margins, and also hope that Saudi Arabia lose to the UAE today and then the Kuwaitis lose to the Saudis in their final clash, also on Tuesday. The UAE, on the other hand, remained undefeated in three contests and appear to be headed for a title showdown against Qatar, who are also unbeaten. They are scheduled to meet in the tournament's final fixture on Tuesday, although both teams still have to face other opposition in their penultimate fixtures. Qatar also claimed their third win in as many games yesterday after winning by default against Saudi, whose players were not equipped with the correct jerseys. Some Saudi players tried to use alternative uniforms with numbers that were placed on the back made up of masking tape, but this was not allowed by game officials. The Qataris thus officially claimed a 20-0 win. In yesterday's third and last game, Kuwait crushed Oman 97-57. The Bahrainis put up a spirited fight in their first meeting with the UAE since losing to them by 40 points last month at the Fiba Asia Championship held in Wuhan, China. The Emiratis came out firing and netted 30 points in the first quarter alone to take an eight-point lead in the second. But Bahrain fought back and managed to cut the deficit to three at the half, 45-48. The nationals then took the lead in the third period with a strong showing on both ends of the court. They powered to the front for a slim 72-70 advantage heading into the final canto. In the fourth period, however, things turned drastically as the UAE stymied the hosts and seized control of the contest, finishing the game strong to escape with the win. They outscored Bahrain by 11 in the entire fourth period, when the nationals collapsed despite having the victory in their sights. Leading the way for Bahrain were top players Ahmed Al Mutawa, Bader Abdulla Malabes, Hussain Shaker, Maytham Jameel, Ahmed Abdulaziz, Mohammed Abdulmajeed and Ahmed Malallah. The rest of the team, coached by Bahraini tactician Ahmed Salman, included Hesham Sarhan, Mohammed Mansoor, Ahmed Najaf, Abdulrahman Ghali and Mohammed Ameer. Amongst those to lead the UAE in the win were Rashed Saeed, Khalifa Ibrahim and Jassim Jaber.