MERALCO reeled to its third straight loss in the Doha International Basketball Championship, bowing to Libya’s Al Ahly, 81-87, at the conclusion of Group B action early yesterday in Qatar.
After falling to an 18-point hole in the third, the Meralco Bolts unleashed a searing fightback and got to within four but ran out of time to complete the steal.
With this result, coupled with losses to Kuwait’s Al Arabi (82-90) and Egypt’s Al Zamalek (72-80) in preceding matches, winless Meralco wound up fourth in the group and was relegated to the classification stage.
The Bolts continue their hunt for victory in today’s duel with Group A No. 3 Faith Union Sport (FUS) of Morocco (2-1). A breakthrough win gives Meralco a crack at fifth spot in the eight-team tourney while a loss sends it to the battle for seventh.
Thanks to its dispatching of Meralco, Al Ahly finished Group A at second with 2-1 to join unbeaten Zamalek (3-0), 89-63 winner of Al Arabi, in the semifinals.
The Libyan squad seized control against the Bolts with a 37-23 barrage in the third period behind the exploits of Ben Suleiman, Graith Al Rahman and Craig Winder.
Sparked by Alvin Pasaol and Aaron Black, Meralco trimmed the Al Ahly lead to a manageable 85-81 in the dying seconds before Suleiman iced it from the stripe ahead of the final buzzer. — Olmin Leyba
