Muslim Basketball

Best win: Explosion vs Areeha. One of the league leaders in 3PM, when Tiberias catches fire from 3, even the top teams in the league can’t stop them. Teams know the scouting report to stop them from shooting but in this game they were still able to get their shots catching defenses in mental lapses, particularly in transition and drop coverage on picks. That’ll need to be a point of emphasis to win games: look to attack early or expose bigs that like to hang in the paint on the pick and pop.

Tiberias put this one away quick and the way they did it was very promising. On one end, they played strong man to man defense which gave Yaffa problems driving the ball. On the other end, they were able to put slower bigs in PnR and get space to hit 3s, especially from Ali Hassan. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to send them up the rankings but they handled what they were dealt as best they could.

After a few weeks high up the PR, Tiberias has tumbled back down. Their signature win vs Areeha still holds strong but it seems like their peak is unsustainable and a product of being an all or nothing type offense. They put up another 37 threes this week but only converted 22%. They’ve shown in past seasons that it can win them consecutive games but not with the defense playing like this, among the league leaders in fouls.

Nice to see Ali Hassan have his best game of the season but the timing was unfortunate with Sal’s off shooting night as Tiberias fell short against a top tier team. With so many 3s, the offense is prone to random variation in shooting. They can compete with anyone but they’ll need advantages elsewhere, possibly defense, to string together consecutive wins come playoff time.

Potentially controversial to keep Tiberias below the team they just beat but future outlook is a factor. Starting with the positive, Andrew is a POTW candidate with 37 points and 8 threes, and the guard screens were very difficult to stop with Sal adding 21. It’s hard to fault them, but they’ve been able to play to their strengths. They can launch up PR with a W vs Bethlehem. 

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.

It’s hard to rank this team this low knowing what they’re capable of on the offensive side. There were flashes this week too, where Ali Hassan and Sal looked unguardable in pick and pop. The margins are thin to win in this league and someone needs to make more winning plays for this team.

Tiberias relied on strong perimeter play, led by Andrew Niedermaier’s 24-point outing with five made threes and Ali Hassan’s 13 points. Despite knocking down 10 triples, the team struggled overall from the field at just 34% and couldn’t generate enough interior scoring or trips to the free-throw line. Limited rebounding (18 total) and 16 fouls made it tough for Tiberias to keep up with Tulkarem’s balanced scoring.