The Kuwaiti team surprised its UAE counterpart by defeating it 70-65 in the play-off match for fourth place, at the conclusion of the preliminary round of the 19th Arab Youth Championship held at Al-Zohour Club Hall in Cairo, at a time when Al-Abyad was a candidate to compete for the bronze medal by comparison. For the modest performances made by “Blue” in the first three rounds, which he compensated in the last two rounds with deserved victories over the Saudi and UAE teams.
With this result, Al-Azraq rose to meet its third-ranked Qatari counterpart for the bronze medal on the final day “Thursday”, while the Algerian and Egyptian teams meet to determine the champion of the 19th edition.
The results for the periods: 14-17, 14-20, 15-15 and 22-18.
The preference in the first three quarters was in favor of Kuwait, with a late awakening for the Emirates in the last quarter, at a time when “Al-Abyad” was affected by the injury of Abdulaziz Khalifa, the match’s top scorer with 20 points, who missed the last 4 minutes of the second period, and returned at the beginning of the fourth quarter following His treatment, and had it not been for that emergency exit, the match would have taken another turn due to the great role that Azzouz plays in all matches.
The Algerian team strengthened its position at the top of the standings with 10 points unbeaten by defeating the Saudi team, which is ranked sixth and last, with a score of 29-69.
