Beirut faces the defending champion Al-Ahly deserved to win in the Egyptian Clásico, after ending his match against its Alexandrian counterpart, Master of the country, with a score of 82/77, due to the defensive style that served as the trump card in pressuring Al-Ittihad’s professionals, especially the American Harris who scored only 12 points unusually, and whose lowest average was 20 points. Had it not been for the superiority of Abu Al-Ela, nicknamed Bebo, the top scorer of the match, with 26 points, and his prominent role in defense and attack, Al-Ahly would have emerged with a wide victory. Al-Ahly team imposed its rhythm from the beginning and surprised its Alexandrian competitor with its pressing defense and preventing its star Harris from controlling the game and posing a threat to the red basket through Makkawi, one of the most prominent stars of the match who was the method of maintaining its superiority throughout the four rounds and sometimes raised the difference to 13 points But Bebo's intervention was behind the difference being reduced to two or three points, and in the last minute, Al-Ittihad almost overturned the result with four attempts from outside the arc, and each time the ball hit the hoop and returned to the field to no avail, making the team pay the price for its haste and weak defensive coverage. Al-Ahly took the lead in the first two quarters,the second was 19/18 and 24/17, while Al-Ittihad finished the third and fourth quarters in its favor 19/17 and 23/22. Al-Ahly scored 8 three-points from 19 attempts from outside the arc, compared to 11 for Al-Ittihad from 38 attempts. At the follow-up level, i.e. the rebound, Al-Ahly succeeded with 39 attempts, 30 of them in defense, compared to 44 for Al-Ittihad, including 28 in defense
Bebo from Al-Ittihad scored 26 points, followed by Nawras Cole, Al-Ahly professional, with 20 points. Al-Ahly will play with Salé of Morocco in the semi-final tomorrow, Wednesday, and in the same round, Kuwait, the defending champion, will meet Beirut, which qualified at the expense of Al-Ittihad Algeria after winning 110/78. The results of the rounds were as follows:
24/17, 29/17, 26/22 and 25/18. 17/24 Beirut scored 15 three-point shots compared to 6 for the Algerian team. Beirut professional Tony Michel also scored the highest score with 23 points, followed by his teammate Jan-Marc 20 and Sergio Darwish 19.
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