The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

NEW club, same result for Kadeem Coleby as he earned another trip to a championship series in the Middle East.

In his first season with Al Muharraq of Bahrain’s Premier League, Coleby’s team reached the championship series after a two-game sweep of Al Ahli in the semi-final. They will advance to face Coleby’s former team, Al Manama, when the series opens April 5.

Al Manama, led by former NBA veteran Nikoloz Tskitishvilli, defeated Al Hala 2-1 to advance.

Coleby was a key member in Al Manama’s title run last season – their fourth consecutive and 20th overall in club history. He finished with 23 points in the season finale.

The former Wichita State Shocker has been just as dominant this season and helped lead Muharraq to the Khalifa bin Salaman Basketball Cup in February with a 73-58 win over Nuwaldrat. Coleby scored 16 in the win.

The match was held under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and attended by Bahrain Basketball Association President Shaikh Isa bin Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa and other top officials from clubs and sports associations. 

In the previous season, the 6’9”, 250-pound forward played with Al Fateh Al Hasa of the Saudi Arabian Premier League.

He contributed to his team making it to the final after they ended the regular season as the second best team. He prepped himself for his professional debut with Geneva in Eurobasket Summer League in Las Vegas, which is considered the top summer league for players seeking to make the pro leap to Europe.

After a collegiate career which included stops at Odessa Junior College and Louisiana Lafayette, Coleby found a home in his senior season at Wichita State.

In his senior season, Coleby ended up with an average of 12.9 points per game. In their 36 games, in which he started 19 times, Coleby shot .360 per cent from the field (38-for-84) and .500 per cent from the free throw line (18-for-36) for a total of 96 points or an average of 2.6 ppg.

On the national team level, he was also a member of the Caribbean Basketball Confederation Championship gold medal team in 2014 and Coleby averaged 10.8 points per game. It was the seventh time a Bahamian men’s national team has captured the CBC title, and the first time since 1995.

The team advanced to the Centrobasket tournament where they failed to qualify for the Tournament of Americas. Coleby averaged 7.8 points and 4.5 rebounds per game at the Centrobasket, hosted in Nayarit,  Mexico.