KUWAIT: Jahra and Burgan players vie for the rebound during their Kuwait Basketball League playoff match Sunday night.

By Abdellatif Sharaa

KUWAIT: In an exciting match, Jahra basketball team won the first playoff game against Burgan 75-65 Sunday night. The second match saw Kuwait notch an easy win against Qurain with the score of 107-58. Kuwait Basketball League playoff rounds are of three matches each, with the winners qualifying for the next round to start on Jan 24.

Jahra saw themselves up 11-2 at the start of the match through accurate shooting by Abdelaziz Al-Humaidi. Burgan players were reckless and allowed Jahra to go up 26-12. The second quarter saw Burgan organize their attack and they reduced the gap to 8 points through Musaed Al-Otaibi and Saad Al-Rifae, but Jahra did not take long to restore its dominance through players Mohammad Ashkanani, Fahad Khalid and Humaidi, and ended the first half with the score of 47-34.

Jahra continued scoring in the third quarter and led by 18 points, which made Burgan's coach to take time out to reorganize his defense and raise the pace of the match. Burgan were able to reduce the point difference to 10 points, but Humaidi's three-pointers ended the third quarter at 65-52. The fourth quarter saw Jahra players tiring, which was an opportunity for Burgan to reduce the difference to 5 points through their fast-paced play, but the experience of Jahra players saved the day for them, as the match ended at 75-65.