By Umar Abdul Salam
JEDDAH — Week three matches of the Saudi Basketball Federation League ended with Ittihad, Ohud and Hilal — the only undefeated teams left in the league — owning the first, second and third positions, respectively.
Ittihad held the top spot by beating 9th place Wehdah 89-59. Import players Jordan Williams scored 27 and Randy Reed 20. Locals Mathana Hassan (13), Jabber Al Kabri (10) were the other main scorers for Ittihad. Wehdah, playing without any foreign players, scored through Hesam (13), Malik (10) and Talal (8).
Ohud in second place edged out No. 7 Fateh 96-89. Import Freddy Lee Nickolas pumped in 32 points. Mohammed Al Madi made 19, Fahad 16, while Shalabi and Abdul Aziz contributed 9 each. For Fateh, import Danilo Mitrovit had 29, and locals Mohammed Al Saggaf 21 and Abdul Latif Tamak 14. Third place Hilal beat last place Khualdiah 114-80. Fourth place Nasser won over sixth place Ahli 72-64. Ansar held on to the fifth spot with a win over No. 8 Al-Safa 87-39.
Week four actions will pit No. 1 Ittihad against No. 3 Hilal in Riyadh and No. 2 Ohud vs No. 4 Nasser in Madinah.
Friday matches are: Al-Safa vs. Fateh in Dammam, Ahli vs. Al-Khualdiah in Jeddah, and Wehdah vs. Ansar in Makkah.