Muslim Basketball

No Mahrooz, no problem. Areeha handled business without their star player. Not the most efficient offensive showing but this team can win in multiple ways. Great energy from Singer throughout the game and Jay chipping in 5 steals which has become insanely normal. Another efficient game from Ali Suiafan, who’s having a good season

onvincing win from start to finish for Rafah against an undermanned Tulkarem. They were already winning games and now continue to add new dimensions to the offense. Joey was heavily involved with a team high 5 assists. Double digit threes for the first time this season led by Anas Zubi with 4.

Statement win for Bethlehem, taking down an Al-Bireh team that still put out a loaded lineup. Their zone continues to be enough to complement an offense that leads the league in points per game and FG%. Jay Wiggins came up big with 23 points on 11-16, in a game where they needed every one of his points.

Not sure what Gaza did to deserve the beatdown Haifa gave them. With an 18 point lead at half, Haifa outscored Gaza by 30 in the second half. Amir Charrkas had a machine like 28 points on 13 shots. Shahzaib turned it into a track meet, finishing with 27 of his own. Big test for the defense next week in a huge game vs Rafah.

ough to go into such a big game missing so many pieces and also hard to take much away from this game. On the bright side, Anas Ani in his debut got some misses out of the way as he steps into a big role for the rest of the season. Mana continues to look unstoppable but will need support for this team to make serious noise.

Sometimes the answer is simple and Mahdy being the best player on the court was enough to pull it out in OT. Safad had no plan for him and he moved freely all game. Don’t overlook the support, though. Omar Sehwail made big plays and Heemy had a huge stop to close out the game. They’ll need to repeat this formula next week.

The shots weren’t falling early but Tiberias showed a lot of resilience to hold on until it came raining down. Jerusalem could not guard Andrew during the comeback and Tiberias finished with 15 threes against the zone. Excellent free throw shooting down the stretch, especially from Sal Rahin, to close the game out. No one will want to play this version of Tiberias.

Safad fits the bill of a middle of the pack team, showing flashes of dominance like they did in their quick start followed by unexplainable disappearances like the last few minutes that let Al-Khalil back in the game. The offense is a little iso-heavy for a team that isn’t deep with consistent scorers. They’ll look to get back on track in the coming weeks.

It’s rare to see teams come out with a well coordinated defensive gameplan but Nazareth pulled it off. Their zone and well timed double teams gave Akrum and Jenin problems despite the misleading box score in a blowout. Great performance by Khalid Musbeh with 28 on 12-14 shooting. Would like to see it again before pushing them higher up the rankings.

A talented team but too many weaknesses to gameplan around for Jerusalem. The league’s worst defense opted for a zone but in doing so put themselves in a three point shootout with one of the best shooting teams in the league, while they’re 14th in the league in 3PT%. Michael Knight with another 41 points on 19 shots.

Great bounce back game for Adeeb with 24 including 6-13 from 3 but it wasn’t enough as Al-Bireh fell short in a close game. Can’t drop them too low for losing to a top team without Shafic but the same spacing issues hold them back in these

For the second straight week, the game was out of reach for Jenin by halftime. Overall, the offense was not bad. Akrum had 28 and the team hit 14 threes total, with 4 from Zubair. The transition defense and rebounding killed them and Nazareth was getting everywhere first. It’s a good opportunity to improve the rest of the team until Wajdi is back.

 Disappointing performance for Gaza, not because of the end result but how it happened. They had a meltdown mid game and made no effort to get back in transition while Shahzaib scored 10 layups in a row for Haifa. Not much to take away from this game. They’ll have to wipe it from memory and have a good opportunity to bounce back next week.

Baysan handled their business well this week, with a balanced scoring effort of 5 players in the 8-12 point range. This is an excellent three point shooting team but want to see better defense against the top teams in the league before moving them up the rankings. They’ve been competitive and would not be surprising at all to see them rise later in the season.

A good gameplan and effort from Yazur to play a slow paced game and force poor shooting from Areeha, which kept them in a manageable distance for most of the game. However, all the extra possessions they gave through turnovers and rebounding were too much to overcome. Good bounce back game from Hicham chipping in 4 buckets.

Despite the stats, Yaffa had a solid performance offensively this week. Derek was second on the team in attempts but the rest of the team shot relatively efficiently. Jojo led the way with 16 on 6-14 shooting. Derek is not going to shoot that poorly again so they may be more successful in the future if they can shore things up on defense. It was expected that they’d need time to gel and better weeks are ahead.