| Qadr knocks out the two-time defending champs in spectacular buzzer beater |
Jun 10, 2008 |
The regular season meeting between these two teams saw Qadr beat up on a short-handed Fatiha which was highlighted by Darko Trifunovic pulling down a record 26 rebounds. For this match-up both teams had their full team available and was shaping up to be a great game which some observers billed to be the true finals.
Fatiha started the game off strong as they moved the ball around the perimeter to find the open shooter. The result was getting Sherif Shehata open looks from beyond the arc or moving the ball into the post for Ahsan Raza to get points in the paint. After Raza put some points up, Qadr started to collapse in on him which gave Shehata more room from downtown and he took advantage as he drilled back to back 3-pointers to give his team the early lead. Fatiha was playing aggressive on Trifunovic as they wanted to keep him off the glass and were hoping that by playing physical they could wear him down early in the game. While this strategy appeared to be working, the danger was getting into foul trouble which is what happened to Raza as he picked up his second foul with 15:30 left and was forced to the bench.
Shehata tried to compensate for the loss of Raza by hitting another 3-pointer and put Fatiha up 13-8. Shehata continued to shoot well and his teammates were finding him as he hit his fourth 3-pointer to put Fatiha up 18-10 with ten minutes left in the half. Fatiha continued to play well as they moved the ball around and with five minutes left in the half they had built a 25-14 lead. Qadr continued to struggle as they were unable to match the defensive intensity of Fatiha and were unable to get Trifunovic involved in the offensive sets in any manner.
At the half, Fatiha was leading 33-20 and seemed to be back to championship form as their strong team defense was shutting Qadr down. Fatiha was led by Shehata with 12 points while Martin Konecny had 7 points and 7 rebounds. Raza added 6 points despite his foul trouble. Qadr was led by Najib Schemkhel with 4 points while Trifunovic had 4 points and only 4 rebounds. Qadr would need other players to step it up as Fatiha was doing their best to shut Trifunovic down.
The halftime break seemed to do wonders for Qadr as they started the second half looking strong with a 7-0 run out of the gate to make it a 33-27 game. Qadr continued to stay within striking distance and with 15 minutes left in the half they down 36-30. Qadr continued to press on and after a big run to make it a one-possession game, Fathia was forced to call a timeout with 10:42 left and clinging to a 41-39 lead. Qadr managed to tie the game at 41 with 9:30 left setting up an exciting finish for this game. Qadr guard Sadmir Kadic was putting together a strong second half as he was driving the lane aggressively and getting rewarded with open lay-ups. With seven minutes left the game was still tied, now at 45-45. Qadr hurt their comeback when Bronco Kordic took a foolish technical with six minutes left and his team trailing 47-45. Fatiha was not able to turn this into an advantage and with four minutes left were leading 48-46.
The game went into stop time and Qadr called a timeout with 2:54 left and still down 50-46 as they wanted to set up a play to try and make this a one-possession game. The plan worked as Andrew Motta drilled a 3-pointer to make it a 50-49 game. On the next Fatiha possession, Kadic picked off a long cross-court pass and went in for a breakaway lay-up that gave Qadr a 51-50 lead. Raza split a pair of free throws on Fatiha’s next possession to tie the game at 51 with 1:30 left to play.
Qadr wasted their next possession and Fatiha held the ball hoping to go for the last shot. Fatiha did well to spread the floor and moved the ball around patiently until Mike Jacobs made his move to the rim. Trifunovic stepped up to block the shot and ended up picking up a shooting foul with only eight seconds left. Jacobs missed both free throws and Trifunovic grabbed the rebound and called for a timeout immediately.
Qadr drew up a plan which could not have been overly complicated as they did not have a lot of time to work with and were inbounding the ball from under their own basket. Fatiha would need to play straight up defense as they were over the foul limit and would not want to give Qadr a chance to win the game at the free throw line. Kadic received the inbound pass and went coast to coast and drove for the lay-up. Fatiha collapsed and tried to block the shot which forced Kadic to adjust and ended up missing the lay-up but the ball rimmed out to the other side where Kordic was waiting untouched as no one boxed him out. Kordic seemed to be surprised as well and took a second before putting up a shot that dropped in just before the buzzer. Qadr mobbed their teammate for his last minute heroics as Fatiha was left stunned with the final play.
Qadr was led by Kadic with 17 points while Motta finished with 12 points. Trifunovic was held to only 7 points and 8 rebounds as Fatiha managed to hold him in check all game. Fatiha was led by Shehata with 14 points. While fans may remember the key misses by Jacobs at the end, as a team Fatiha shot 4 for 12 from the line and did not help themselves with poor passes and weak box-outs down the stretch.
Qadr will now advance to the Tier 1 finals and await the winner of the Tamjeed versus Zilzal semi-final to be played next week. |
