| Return of the Champs? Fatiha beats Tamjeed to end season on winning streak |
Jun 2, 2008 |
When these teams met earlier in the season, Tamjeed won by a 53-37 score when Fatiha had only five players present and Teepu Khawja fouled out early in the second half forcing his team to play shorthanded. Tamjeed came into this game riding high after defeating Qadr the week before to take first place. Tamjeed needed to win this game to clinch the first seed while a loss would see them drop down to third place. Fatiha showed up with their full roster for the first time this season which was a boost. Tamjeed had almost everyone present as Ismail Kara no showed meaning that he is now ineligible for the playoffs which is a blow to their depth and scoring.
Fatiha started the game off with a bang as they went on a 9-0 run and Tamjeed was forced to call a timeout with 16:54 left as they did not want things to get out of hand early. The play drawn up in the timeout worked as Ibrahim Baig hit a three pointer after coming off a screen to make it a 9-3 game and show that Tamjeed had life in them. Fatiha continued to play well and with six minutes left in the half, they were up by a 26-16 score. Tamjeed continued to fight to stay in the game but it was only Baig that was able to score as Fatiha was shutting down everything else.
At the half, Fatiha was up 34-23 and looking strong. Baig led all scorers with 16 points while he was supported by Sanel Sehic with 5 points. Tamjeed was led by Ahsan Raza with 8 point and Mark Dewairy with 7 points. Fatiha’s team defense seemed to be wearing down Sehic as they were chasing him all over the court and not giving him any space to work with. Frustration seemed to be creeping in for Tamjeed as players argued briefly about passing the ball and going to the open space.
The second half saw Fatiha continue to lead but Tamjeed slowly started to chip away and with 12 minutes left, Fatiha’s lead was now down to 38-34. With 7:30 left, Fatiha was up 40-35 when Khawja got fouled while driving the lane. He managed to absorb the contact to complete his lay-up and knocked down the free throw for the 3-point play to put Fatiha up 43-35. Raza got a 3-point play of his own with five minutes left and hit the free throw to keep Fatiha up 48-38. Tamjeed continued to struggle to make it closer and with three minutes left were down 48-40. Thinking the game was in hand, Fatiha emptied their bench which turned out to be a disastrous move as they threw up multiple bad shots instead of running out the clock. Tamjeed came back and Baig drew a shooting foul where he hit both free throws to make it 48-42. Fatiha again showed poor shot selection and another bad shot gave Tamjeed possession where Baig drew a shooting foul where he hit one of two shots to make it a 48-43 score with 1:15 left and more importantly a stop-clock game. Fatiha again took a quick shot but were fortunate to hit it to make it a 50-43 game. Tamjeed pushed the ball up court to Wayne Stanley who completed a lay-up while getting fouled. Stanley hit his free throw to make it a 50-46 game with 46 second left. Tamjeed managed to steal the inbounds pass and Camran Baig was fouled with 31 seconds left but missed both free throws to keep the score at 50-46 with 31 seconds left. Tamjeed was forced to foul and sent Sherif Shehata to the line where he split his shots to make it a 51-46 game. Tamjeed pushed the ball up-court and Baig put up a 3-point attempt that was blocked by Mike Jacobs. Raza grabbed the loose ball before being fouled and he calmly went to the line and hit both free throws to make it 53-46 with 11 seconds left. Jacobs then managed to steal the ball back and Fatiha went on to win 55-46.
Baig led all scorers with 26 points and was supported by Sehic with 10 points in a losing cause. Fatiha got one of their trademarked balanced efforts and were led by Raza with 17 points while Shehata finished with 8 points. They also got a great game from Jacobs who finished with 7 points, 8 rebounds 5 steals and a block.
The final score was kind to Fatiha who despite winning, nearly blew the game in the final minutes thanks to poor substituting and even worse shot selection. That aside, Fatiha was overall strong and showed that when they have all their key players that they are still a great team.
The loss drops Tamjeed to third place and a first round match-up against Adiyat with the winner moving on to face Zilzal. Fatiha remains in fourth place and will face Inshirah first round with the winner playing Qadr in round two. |
