American School of Dubai (ASD) won a closely fought contest 47-45 over Lycee Francais International Georges Pompidou in the semi-finals of the High School Basketball Championship.

And defending champions GEMS World Academy (GEMS) booked their second trip to the finals with a 53-42 victory over International School of Choueifat – Sharjah (ISCS).

Lycee started the game strongly with Adham Gaama scoring 10 of his game-high 20 points in the first quarter. Despite trailing throughout the game, ASD finally managed to take their first lead at 40-38 going into the final quarter of play.

With back-to-back scores from Hasan Ismail, ASD held on to a two-point lead to sneak past Lycee and book themselves a place in the final. In the second game, ISCS also started aggressively as they scored the first 11 points, keeping GEMS scoreless for the first five minutes.

However, GEMS executed a defensive press and gradually closed the half trailing ISCS by just one point. Jordi Menkhorst led the way for GEMS on both ends of the floor, with 19 points, and eight blocks.

The defending champions then stepped up a gear and closed out the game 53-42 for a meeting with American School of Dubai.

The final will be held on February 28 at Al Nasr Club’s Rashid Bin Hamdan Hall from 13:00.