Basketball league resumes to decide final play-offs

AMMAN — Teams return to local competition in the Jordan Basketball League on Wednesday after a week-long break for the West Asian Basketball Championship hosted by Orthodoxi.

Teams will start Leg 2 of Round 2 before the final two teams moving to best-of-five play-offs for the title are decided.

Riyadi ended Leg 1 matches atop the standings after they beat Awdeh 86-61 to score their third straight win. They overcame Round 1 unbeaten team Hurrieh 73-67 and Orthodoxi 73-65. 

Riyadi reversed their Round 1 form and despite the injury of centre Wisam Sous, who is out for the season, the team now needs to keep their focus in Leg 2 of the competition to play for the title.

Orthodoxi need to put pick up the team from the West Asian slump and try to repeat their wins over Hurrieh 78-58 and Awdeh 86-82 in Leg 1.

Awdeh seem to have lost their grip after they were the only team that managed to beat Round 1 leaders Hurrieh 65-61 earlier in Leg 1. 

At the other end of the standings in the battle to avoid relegation Kufr Youba and Jalil held on to their spots pushing Ghazzet Hashem and Nashama to be relegated to Division 1.

Hurrieh had finished Round 1 with an unbeaten record, while Orthodoxi were second after they beat Riyadi. With teams like Applied Science University, Ittihad, Wihdat pulling out of the competition, Awdeh joined the top four. 

Following two legs of matches in the current Round 2, final standings from 1-4 will be decided to determine who advances to the final play-offs for the title.

The season started with Orthodoxi winning the Jordan Cup and aiming to retain the league title which they won for the record 23rd time last year.

Apart from Riyadi and Orthodoxi, leading clubs abandoning the game this season leading to major changes in the league. After winning the league four times, the last being in 2013 and 2014, both ASU and Ittihad disbanded their teams over differences with the Jordan Basketball Federation which led to a sharp decline in the game locally and Jordan’s regional competitive chances.