| Inshirah rides strong start to a Championship |
Feb 4, 2008 |
These teams split the two games that they played against each other in the regular season so neither was really the favourite prior to tip-off. The keys for Kursi were to get a good start and get balanced production from their entire roster. Inshirah would need to show patience and good shot selection to not throw away possessions like they have in the past. Also Inshirah would need to put the team first and not argue about playing time as they did in their win over Bayyina last week.
Kursi started this game the same way they have begun many of their recent games as they came out flat. They were committing turnovers and settling for long jump shots while Inshirah was being aggressive on both ends of the court which led to them getting some easy baskets. After ten minutes of play, Inshirah was leading 13-4 and seemed in total control of the game.
After a couple of poor offensive possessions, Inshirah called a timeout with 8:40 left and up 13-6. The stoppage worked as Inshirah went on a quick run and with five minutes left in the half were leading 20-8. As bad as Kursi was playing offensively, their defensive effort seemed worse as Inshirah was getting open looks and easy offensive rebounds for put-back baskets.
Kursi called a timeout with 1:02 left and trailing 30-12 to see if they could get something working going into halftime but were unable to score and Inshirah took a 30-12 lead into the half. Michael Sagoe led all scorers with 8 points and was the only consistent threat for Kursi. Inshirah was led by Inderbir Gill with 6 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals. He was supported by Noraiz Akbar with 6 points as he hit both his 3-point attempts.
The second half started with Kursi showing signs of life as they started to be more aggressive offensively and Inshirah started to throw up horrible shot attempts. Inshirah went away from their game plan which was working in the first half of moving the ball and playing good team defense and instead started to resort to individual play and throwing up forced 3-point shots. This attempt pad their personal stats saw Inshirah struggle offensively and get frustrated with each other. Kursi took full advantage and started to make a run to close the gap. With nine minutes left in the game, Inshirah was leading by a 39-29 score but clearly in big trouble. Kursi continued their pressure and Inshirah continued their poor decisions with the ball which resulted in Kursi scoring four unanswered baskets.
Inshirah finally called a timeout with 8:15 left and their lead now at 39-37 making their collapse nearly complete. Adding to the problems for Inshirah was that their two big men, Gill and Shazie Buttar both picked up their fourth foul and would be forced to play the last eight minutes of the game trying not to foul out of the game. Yet Kursi did not seem to try and take advantage of this and attack Gill or Buttar to get them out of the game.
With six minutes left, Inshirah was still holding onto a 39-37 lead. The next few minutes saw the teams’ trade baskets with Inshirah still holding onto their lead. With three minutes left to play, Inshirah had made it a two possession game as they were up 43-39. Inshirah managed to get another basket to make it a 45-39 game with 2:30 left and more importantly make the game a run-clock situation. Kursi was unable to score on their next possession and Inshirah scored a quick basket in transition to make it 47-39 with 1:40 left. Kursi missed their next offensive possession and fouled Buttar who grabbed the rebound but let the clock run for another 25 seconds before calling a timeout to stop the clock with 51 seconds and down 47-39. Buttar split his free throws to make it 48-39 but Kursi was unable to score again and Inshirah managed to run out the clock for the win.
Sagoe led all scorers with 23 points and was supported by Tunji Giwa with 12 points. Inshirah was led by Gill with 17 points and 8 rebounds.
Kursi started flat which cost them the game despite their strong second half. When Kursi had the chance to get both Gill and Buttar out of this game they stopped short of taking the ball at them and forcing them to foul or give up an easy basket.
Inshirah rode their strong start and got great leadership from Mostafa Azzam who did all the little things that his team needed to push them to a championship. Inshirah announced after the game that they would take advantage of their option as the Tier Two Champion to advance to Tier One. They have some of the tools to be a competitive team in Tier One but will need to work on their overall team play if they hope to get a championship in Tier One. |
