Al-Rayyan finish second in FIBA Asia Champions Cup

Qatar’s Al Rayyan basketball team occupied the second place at the 24th FIBA Asia Champions Cup after losing to Foolad Mahan in the final match on Saturday. When the going got tough, the tougher of the two finalists Foolad Mahan got going and broke away from their shackles powering their way to an 84-74 win against a tactically and temperamentally superior, but tiring, Al Rayyan of Qatar to clinch the title . Boney Watson sparked an 11-2 run, which started with the naturalized Qatari guard’s five-point play, which helped Rayyan close the third period by a healthy – by the standard and stature of the contest – at the end of the third quarter raising questions about Mahan’s ability to hold their nerves. Slovenian Sani Becirovic and Hamed Haddadi silenced all those questions bringing Mahan back into the lead. Aren Davoudi, by far the steadiest player for Mahan in this competition, soon joined the party as Mahan played at a furious pace leaving Rayyan gasping for breath. Davoudi fired in a three-pointer with about two minutes left on the clock to put Mahan ahead by double-digits for the first time in the game following Becirovic’s equally sizzling long ranger and Haddadi once again powered his way to widen that gap as Mahan asserted their superiority of size and strength on their way to triumph on their debut in FIBA Asia Champions Cup. Haddadi finished with 20 points while Mahdi Kamrani did the damage with his scything runs which fetched 21 points. Becirovic, the man of the hour for Mahan, went on to account for 19 points. Rayyan’s challenge had relied, as expected, to a large extent on Watson and their veteran spearhead Yasseen Ismail. The two seasoned campaigners did carry the challenge rather gallantly and indeed raised hopes in their bench, but found little support from their wearing out teammates. Source: Qatar Olympic Committee