Greatness named 2018 Kuwait Youth Basketball champions
KUWAIT: After an exciting and competitive last 2 weeks, the second annual Kuwait Youth Basketball Tournament held at Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST), came to an end last Sunday by announcing “Greatness” as the champion wining the final game 70-61 over “Elite Squad”.
“Elite Squad” led the first and second quarters with 16 - 21 and 26 - 34 respectively but “Greatness” reduced the gap in the third quarter and ended the quarter leading by 4 points (44 - 40). Despite the many attempts by “Elite Squad” in the fourth quarter to end the game to their favor, “Greatness” retained their lead and ended the game 70 - 61 and were announced the champion of the second round of the Kuwait Youth Basketball Tournament. Youssef AlFailakawi was the top scorer for the winning team and the game with 28 points while Imran Nzairwas the top scorer for “Elite Squad” with 19 points.
An awards ceremony followed the final game and Najib Zantout, Head of the organizing committee, handed over the awards to the teams. The winning team received the trophy, KD 500 prize in addition to the first-place medals, while “Elite Squad” players received second place medals. Hamad Adnan, was awarded top scorer of the tournament scoring 139 points and received prizes from the main sponsor, “Hardee’s”.
The Kuwait Youth Basketball Tournament is an annual event launched in 2017 to encourage the youth to practice sports in a competitive atmosphere during the holy month of Ramadan. The tournament targets the youth under the age of 21 years with the possibility of joining two players over this age, which adds expertise to the participating teams. This year’s tournament started on Thursday 24th of May 2018 with the participation of eight teams including a number of professional players in two groups.
Zantout said: “We are very pleased with the spirit and the level of the teams participating in the tournament this year. The results of most games were close and winners were only announced towards last minutes.”
“On behalf of the organizing committee, I would like to thank Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) for their fruitful cooperation in hosting this year’s event and I would also like to thank all our sponsors, especially the main supporter “Hardee’s” and the participating sponsors, “Honda Alghanim”, “The Sultan Center” and others.”