El Cheikh Fadi El Khatib, Christopher Williams: Top Players from the FIBA Asia Champions Cup Final
Lebanon’s Al Riyadi Beirut 91 – Iran’s Mahram 82
Playing at the Phil Sport Arena on Sunday, the Al Riyadi Beirut of Lebanon finally clinched their first gold medal in the 22nd FIBA Asia Championship Cup after crushing the two times defending champions Mahram of Iran.
Trailing by 1 point in the fourth quarter, the Lebanese team smashed the opposition with a 34-point blitz in the final 10 minutes and sealed a brilliant 91-82 victory.
An overview on the best performance of the night is as under.
El Cheikh Fadi El Khatib
The 32-year-old power forward, El Cheikh Fadi El Khatib blistered away with a game-high 41 points on the night and almost single handedly overpowered Mahram. El Cheikh had been crucial for the unbeaten Lebanese team throughout
the tournament but he saved his best, and that of the tournament, for the most crucial game of his career. Khatib’s major domination came in the second half of the game when he smashed the opposition with 29 points.
EL Cheikh clinched his first gold medal in seven years and said after the game, “I can’t express my feelings man. When you wait for something for a long time, it’s always sweeter. I couldn’t event walk properly this morning. But
I knew I had to take charge in this game. When I returned from the locker room in the half-time, I knew I will do it. And I did it.”
El Khatib was absolutely outstanding from the charity stripe and landed 19 free throws on 22 attempts. The star of the night connected on 47 percent of the shots from the field and also buried six shots from beyond the arc.
M. Samad Nikkhah Bahrami
Mahram were led by their star player M. Samad Nikkhah Bahrami in the first three quarters of the game as the Iranians held the lead. However, in the face of Al Riyadi’s tremendous assail in the fourth quarter Samad failed to lead
his team to a historic three peat. The prolific small forward erupted with a team-high 28 points, handed out 7 assists and clutched 4 boards.
Christopher Williams
The scoring leader of the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship Cup, Christopher Williams, posted another magnificent performance for Mahram in the Finals. However he failed to lead his team for a third successive gold medal. Williams pounded
21 points on the night, gathered 7 rebounds and dished out 5 assists.
Jean Abd El Nour
Jean Abd el Nour was the second best scorer for Al Riyadi on the night. He landed 21 points to power the Lebanese team down the stretch towards their first FIBA Asia Championship title.
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