Old Timers Basketball League: Arab Potash Wins the Title..

CEC (Sajdi & Partners) 102-64 Jordan Hospital 

It was apparent that both teams were disappointed not to be playing in the championship game as both teams deserved to, so the game started off slow as neither team was able to score 20 points in the first quarter which ended with CEC leading 17-14. Both teams stayed close until the last 4 minutes of the second quarter when CEC used a 13-0 run to take a 46-31 lead into halftime. 

In the 3rd quarter, Jordan Hospital managed to score only 10 points compared to 27 points by CEC. Things remained the same in the fourth quarter as CEC scored 29 compared to 23 by Jordan Hospital giving CEC the third place and the highest scoring game of the league with 102 points.

Top Scorers:

CEC: Nihad Madi 27, Fawaz Shaikh 22, Fadi Saqqa 19
Jordan Hospital: Eyad Mohammad 21, Ahmad Bashir 14, Pat McCurry 13

Arab Potash 84-70 Gulf Oil

Gulf Oil came in as the favorites, having the best offense in the league and winning all 10 games they played so far, while Arab Potash were the underdogs as they barely advanced to the finals and having a record of 6 wins and 5 losses. But Arab Potash did have the best defense in the league, so it looks like it is true "offense wins games but defense wins championships".

The first quarter was even as both teams exchanged baskets till the last 2 minutes when Arab Potash used a 10-0 run to end the quarter leading 21-14. Gulf Oil started the second quarter in a good way, as they were able to tie the game 31-31 midway through the period but Arab Potash went on a run to regain the 7 points lead and go into halftime leading 44-37.

In the 3rd period, Gulf Oil were able to cut into the lead and even take a 5 point lead for themselves (59-54) but like the previous 2 quarters, Arab Potash were able to finish the period strong and go to the 4th and final period leading 60-59. In the final period, Arab Potash didn't wait till the end of the quarter to finish strong, they opened up a double digit lead early and then were able to use the clock wisely and withheld any attempt from Gulf Oil to finally win the game with a final score of 84-70

Top Scorers:
Gulf Oil: Ghazi Naber 37, Ziad Nabulsi 12, Luay Dajani 8
Arab Potash: Ramar Clash 25, Samer Qardan 24, Mustafa Ghool 20

Old Timers Basketball League: Second Semi Final Games

Arab Potash 79-70 CEC (Sajdi & Partners)

Wow, one of the best games of the second season, both teams came with their eyes on advancing to the championship game. That probably is why we had a low scoring 1st quarter. And even though Potash had an early lead 11-7 but CEC were able to finish the period up 14-13. In the second period, Arab Potash had their highest scoring period of the whole league with 28 points while CEC scored 22 points to go into halftime with Potash leading 41-36.

In the 3rd period, Arab Potash were able to increase their lead to 66-51 using their speed and quickness. The fourth quarter was the most exciting as CEC were able to hold Arab Potash scoreless for the first 5 minutes while scoring 11 points themselves to cut the lead down to 4 (66-62), but Arab Potash did not panic and they were able to outscore CEC 13-8 in the last five minutes of the game to win 79-70. Hats off for both teams for a wonderful semi-final.

Top scorers:
CEC: Fadi Saqqa 24, Sultan Abu Mariam 15, Nihad Madi 13
Arab Potash: Ramar Clash 27, Douglas Dye 18, Samer Qardan 17

Old Timers Basketball League: Semi Final Games

2 fascinating games on Friday, in the first semi-final and despite playing short handed, Jordan Hospital gave up a huge fight before losing their second game to Gulf Oil 87-76. With this win, Gulf Oil have secured their place in the final, while Jordan Hospital will play for 3rd place. 

While in the second semi-final, Arab Potash Co. survived a huge comeback from CEC (Sajdi & Partnes) to win 64-56 and force a game 3 on Monday. Arab Potash were up 52-35 after three quarters and everyone thought the game was over but CEC had other thoughts as they held Arab Potash to only 2 points in the first 6 minutes of the 4th period while scoring 17 points to cut the deficit down to 2 with 4 minutes to go but then Arab Potash went on a 10-4 run to finish the game. 

Game three is Monday Dec 23rd at 7 pm. Between the two games, we had a nice kids game, we will post pictures of all the games inshallah on Sunday.

Gulf Oil 87-76 Jordan Hospital
1st Q. 22-15
2nd Q. 22-23
3rd Q. 19-14
4th Q. 24-24

Top scorers:
Gulf Oil: Ghazi Naber 30, Loay Dajani 24, Khaled Quran 16
Jordan Hospital: Ahmad Bashir 31, Fadi Yaghmour 23, Saif Halaseh 10, Pat McCurry 10

Arab Potash 64-56 CEC
1st Q. 18-13
2nd Q. 15-15
3rd Q. 19-7
4th Q. 12-21

Top scorers:
Arab Potash: Douglas Dye 22, Ramar Clash 13, Mustafa Ghool 11
CEC (Sajdi & Partners): Fadi Saqqa 13, Mamdouh Younis 10, Sultan Abu Mariam 9

Old Timers Basketball League: CEC Vs. Arab Potash

A nice competitive game! That was game one of the second semi-final. First quarter was pretty even as CEC managed to finish the period on top 16-14. In the second quarter, Arab Potash scored only 12 points compared to 20 for CEC to go into halftime with a score of 36-26. In the 3rd period, the lead ballooned to 15 midway through the quarter before Arab Potash cut it back down to 10 at the end of the quarter 54-44. 

The final period was the most exciting of the game, as Arab Potash pushed to cut the lead down but CEC countered the Potash run by hitting 3 threes in the period, still Arab Potash were within 5 points with a minute and a half to go but managed to score only 2 points the rest of the way compared to 6 points by CEC to give us a final score of 76-67 for CEC.

Top scorers:

Arab Potash: Ramar Clash 25, Saliba Amash 17, Samer Qardan 11
CEC (Sajdi & partners): Nihad Madi 28, Fadi Saqqa 14, Fawaz Shaikh 12

Old Timers Basketball League: Gulf Oil Vs. Jordan Hospital

Game one of the first semi-final between Jordan Hospital and Gulf Oil Middle East was a great one, Jordan Hospital jumped out of the gate to lead 16-11 despite playing short-handed. In the second quarter, Gulf Oil started to get into the game and were able to use their speed in getting easy transition buckets to close the gap to 1 to go into the break trailing 33-32.

The third period was pretty even as Gulf Oil scored 18 points compared to 16 for Jordan Hospital. In the fourth quarter, fatigue and foul trouble caught up with Jordan Hospital while Gulf Oil kept their foot on the pedal and didn't look back as they took game 1 with a 73-63 win.

Top scorers:
Gulf Oil: Ghazi Naber 25, Loay Dajani 16, Ziad Nabulsi 15
Jordan Hospital: Fadi Yaghmour 19, Pat McCurry 14, Ahmad Bashir 12

Old Timers Basketball League: CEC Vs. Aramex

Last game of the regular season was the most beautiful game so far. With rankings already known, and the match-up for next week's semi-finals set, both teams put on a nice show for all of us to enjoy. During halftime, we had a wonderful kids game where parents enjoyed watching their kids play a mini game.

Aramex started off hot and were able to lead all of the first half. In the 3rd quarter the lead was up to 24 points, then CEC started a huge comeback to cut it down to 10 at the end of the 3rd quarter. The comeback continued at the start of the 4th quarter, as CEC cut the deficit down to 4 before Aramex pushed the lead back up to 10 (67-57) with little over 3 minutes to go. Then CEC mounted another run to cut the deficit down to 4 (69-65) with a minute and a half to go.

CEC then hit a three to cut the deficit down to 1 (69-68) and were able to get a stop on the defensive end then Aramex fouled to send CEC to the line with a chance to take the lead, but CEC scored only one free throw to tie the score 69-69 with 25 seconds to go. Aramex played their last attack perfectly as they let the clock wind down all the way to 2.2 seconds before scoring on a jump shot to take a 71-69 lead. CEC had to chance to win the game but could not get a shot off to give Aramex the win 71-69

Next week's schedule will be as follows:

Sunday Dec 8th: 1st Semi-Final at 7 pm Gulf Oil Middle East vs Jordan Hospital
Tuesday Dec 10th: 2nd Semi-Final at 7 pm Arab Potash vs CEC (Sajdi & Partners)

Friday Dec 13th: 2 games at 4 & 6 pm
1st Semi Final: Gulf Oil Middle East vs Jordan Hospital at 4 pm
2nd Semi Final: Arab Potash vs CEC (Sajdi & partners) at 6 pm

Old Timers Basketball League: Gulf Oil Vs. Arab Potash

With nothing to gain or lose, both teams put on a nice show. Gulf Oil used their speed and quickness to lead 19-16 after the 1st period. The lead started to grow and reached double figures in the second quarter before Arab Potash Co. mounted a comeback to cut the deficit down to 5 at half time (41-36). 

At the beginning of the 3rd quarter, Gulf Oil went back to using their speed as they had easy baskets from transition offense and the lead went back up to 10 points midway through the third period, then Arab Potash Co. went on another run to cut it back to 5 at the end of the quarter (56-51). 

The 4th quarter was the most exciting of the game, Arab Potash were able to hold Gulf Oil scoreless for the first 5 minutes to cut the deficit down to one (56-55) before Gulf Oil were able to score their first points of the period. With less than 30 seconds to go, Arab Potash had a couple of chances to tie the game but their attempts fell short and Gulf Oil were able to hang on to 62-59 win.

Top Scorers:

Arab Potash Co: Ramar Clash 23, Mustafa Al Ghool 12, Faisal Nsour 12, Abdallah Qtaishat 6

Gulf Oil: Ziad Nabulsi 19, Ghazi Naber 16, Loay Dajani 14, Ameer Khatib 4

Old Timers Basketball League: CEC Vs. Jordan Hospital

Jordan Hospital 59-69 CEC (Sajdi & partners)

CEC never trailed in tonight's game as they led from wire to wire. They jumped out to a big lead in the first quarter after hitting 4 threes in the quarter to lead 22-9. The second quarter was much closer as Jordan Hospital scored 17 points to CEC's 19 which resulted in a 41-26 half time score. Third quarter was similar to the second as CEC outscored Jordan Hospital by 2 points (14-12) to enter the fourth period leading 55-38.

In the final period, Jordan Hospital finally showed their true colors as they outscored CEC 19-12 but that wasn't enough to close the big gap as the final score was 69-59 in favor of CEC.

Top scorers:

CEC (Sajdi & partners): Fadi Saqqa 16, Nihad Madi 16, Fadi Imseeh 14

Jordan Hospital: Ahmad Bashir 20, Fadi Yaghmour 19, Pat McCurry 8

Old Timers Basketball League: Jordan Hospital Vs. Gulf Oil Middle East

Gulf Oil Middle East 79 - 69 Jordan Hospital

Jordan Hospital were trying to revenge their loss in the first meeting 2 weeks ago while Gulf Oil were trying to keep there winning streak alive with their 7th straight win. The first 2 quarters were even and low scoring as the score at half time was 33-33. 

The 3rd quarter saw Gulf Oil pull away as they were able to win the quarter 29-13 especially after hitting 5 threes in the quarter to go to the last period up 62-46. In the 4th quarter, Jordan Hospital tried to mount a comeback but were only able to cut the deficit down to 10 points as time ran out with the final score 79-69 for Gulf Oil.

Top Scorers:
Jordan Hospital: Fadi Yaghmour 35, Eyad Mohammad 18, Ahmad Bashir 12
Gulf Oil: Ghazi Naber 31, Ameer Khatib 16, Khaled Quran 12

Great Players in Old Timer Basketball League.. Ghazi Naber: A Reason To Make You Wanna Run

Not only one team but four teams were lucky enough to include such a great name within their lists for the past 15 years.

The great name of a point guard who entertain us with his ability of being a very fast enthusiastic player and his ability of shooting from any corner of the court.

He started his basketball career in Orthodoxi club then moving to Arena, ASU teams and ending up with Kuliiyeh.

And now he once again allows us to enjoy his remarkable playing by being Gulf Oil Middle East Team’s Point Guard in the Old Timers Basketball League.

That great name would be Ghazi Naber