Muslim Basketball

When you think you have an answer for Gagan (14pts, 10ast, 7reb), then you have to figure out how to cover everyone else. In this case, MP3 came out scorching hot, scoring 36 points on 14-24 shooting. A solid win without Devin, too. This is a championship squad, folks. 

When three of your players score in the double-digits, and also get a dub in the process, it tells you how deep a team truly is. Safad took down Ramallah behind Ehsan’s 12 points and the Shah Bro’s dropping 11 a piece.

Jenin won against a very weak team behind double-double’s from Ahmed Ismaeil (18pts, 10reb), Aymen Abdelfatah (14pts, 14reb), and Usman Khan (16pts, 10reb). Once they clean up their shots from three, I can see them competing against the teams ahead of them. 

When Mohamed Amin (14pts) comes late and still lends the team in scoring, there’s not much you can do. This was also Omar Khan’s first game, so he needs some time to mesh with Anas and Co. As long as they get on the same page chemistry wise, they’ll be great in the long run.

Tiberias was led by Mahrooz Qaderi (22pts), who looked like he was the only one comfortable on the court. Adding onto the boards was Salman Ilyas, with 9 rebounds. This season Tiberias looks nothing like one that recently won a championship. Let’s see if they can fix their woes in the second half of the season.  

Araiz Spall continues his MIP campaign, scoring 16 points on 7-9 shooting. Week 3’s POTW Shaharia Shajib also left his mark on the game, 15 points and 8 rebounds. The medium big lineup in Shaharia and Kasey Ramsey is working great for them right now, and they’re only getting more comfortable. 

Coach Elias (17pts) is continuing to get the most out of his players—Hussein Barahma (19pts, 8-12) looks like a player we’ll have to watch out for this season, and going forward. Marawan led the boards with 9 in the game. 

Leading this team was Iyaad (15pts) and Husan (11pts). I do think Iyaad is slowly finding his form again, and they can be the best team this season when they’re fully healthy. Haifa is a team that couldn’t find their rhythm this week, and they need to find it soon. I believe they will. Maybe if/when the Shaban’s return. 

Win or lose, one thing is for certain: Mattias Arrindell (25pts, 11-21) is borderline unstoppable. Like is said every week, the support just isn’t there. 

They did a solid job holding Gagan down, but let everyone else score whenever they wanted to. Karam and Hassan look like bright spots here, but let’s see how they mesh in the second half of the season. 

A double-double from Ahmed Kasana (10pts, 10reb), but they couldn’t finish out the game. This squad was led by Youssef Elshenawy (12pts), and if Elton had a better game, they could have taken it this week. 

What this squad is missing is a good center. They have decent offensive firepower (though they aren’t shooting enough, or even efficiently for that matter), but when you don’t have someone to clean the boards, you lose out on too many opportunities.