Riyadi, Awdeh aim for Basketball League title

AMMAN – It is down to the final day of the Basketball League to decide this year’s champion. Riyadi need to beat Orthodoxi on Tuesday to win the title, otherwise Awdeh will be crowned champions for the first time.

Titleholders Riyadi lead the league’s Leg 2 after they beat Kufr Youba 69-58 in their latest match while Awdeh made sure Orthodoxi’s ambitions were halted after they repeated their win 74-64.

Riyadi could have sealed the title race earlier but lost 75-74 to Awdeh earlier this week.

In Leg 1 of the final round, Riyadi scored a vital 67-61 win over Orthodoxi and earlier beat Awdeh 78-69. After leading the preliminary round of the competition, it was Orthodoxi’s second consecutive defeat after they lost 72-62 to Awdeh. 

In the first round of the competition, Riyadi only lost to Orthodoxi as the top four were decided, while the bottom four battled it out with Jalil, Anjara, Hurrieh and Deir Abi Saied contesting the relegation play-offs. 

Last year’s fourth-placed Awdeh were boosted by the signing of Mahmoud Abdeen midway through the current stage of the competition which had no import players this year and a shortened format wit no best-of-five play-offs for the title.

In the 2015-2016 season, Riyadi-Aramex were crowned league champs — a title which had eluded them for 20 years — when they beat titleholders Orthodoxi to win the best-of -seven play-offs 4-0. Riyadi-Aramex had last won the league in 1997 by then Jazira-Aramex team (whose players later on formed Riyadi’s line-up). Hurrieh were third last year sealing the best-of-five play-offs 3-2 against Awdeh with teams like former league and cup champs Applied Science University, Ittihad, and Wihdat pulling out of the competition over differences with the Jordan Basketball Federation and players dispersed over the rest of clubs.

Orthodoxi, who won their record 23rd league title in the 2014-15 season, last year won the Jordan Cup.

The Basketball League which started in 1952 has had 58 editions with eight teams crowned champion. It was cancelled in three seasons and discontinued once. Orthodoxi have won 23 times, Ahli 21, Zain (Fastlink) six times, ASU four times, Jazira-Aramex twice, while Riyadi, Urdun, Watany and the Electricity Co. won once each.