(MENAFN- Gulf Times) After jostling early on for supremacy, Al Sadd moved ahead in the second half to pick up a 73-66 win over Al Gharafa in the first of the best-of-three semi-final games in the Qatar Basketball League at Al Gharafa Sports Club here yesterday.
In the other dual of the day, defending champions Al Rayyan edged out El Jaish 69-67 in a thrilling encounter yesterday.
n the earlier match of the day, Sadd and Gharafa remained neck to neck after a well-contested first quarter but Gharafa's consistency, scoring 19 points for the second straight quarter, earned them a seven-point advantage at 38-31 going into the break.
Zoran Kreckovic's players, however, returned to the court with a renewed vigour in the second half to score 22 points to Gharafa's 12 moving into a three-point lead at 53-50 with 10 minutes to go.
The gap just widened from in the next five minutes to 66-54 in favour of Sadd, who kept the game in their control finishing with a seven-point victory.
Anthony Raffa was on top the scoresheets for Sadd, with five two-pointers, three three-pointers and nine free-throws for his 28-point haul.
Team-mates Mohamed Deba Kone and Khalid Suliman Abdi pitched in with 18 and 15 points respectively.
Emmanuel Osaro Adako dunked 25 points for Gharafa, with Kevin Dwayne Galloway adding 19 and Hassino Ndoye scoring 13.
In the second match of the day, with 13 seconds to go, James Dominic Davon dunked two-straight free throws to take Rayyan's score to 68-64.
The next 11 seconds saw frantic action in which Mansour Elhadary missed a two-point jumpshot, team-mate Mohamed Yousuf Mohamed dunked his only three-pointer of the game to get Jaish's deficit down to a solitary point at 68-67 and a foul by Fadi Abilmona handed Rayyan free-throw opportunities.
Malek Salem Abdulla dunked one of those free-throws, while Elhadary's desperate jump shot attempt at a three-pointer failed as Rayyan picked up a win.
Midway through the game, when Rayyan held a 11-point advantage at 41-30, such a thrilling climax was not really on anyone's mind but Jaish, led by top-scorer Vernon Leon Macklin, did well to narrow the gap. However, that just wasn't enough in the end.
Macklin had 10 two-pointers,
and six free-throws for his 26
points, while he was supported by Yousuf Mohamed and Sammy Monroe Jr., who added 17 and 12 points respectively.
For the winners, Davon topped the scoresheets with 24 points, while Tanguy Alban Ngombo added 20 and Abdulla pitched in with 13.
Action returns to Al Gharafa Indoor Hall on Saturday, with Jaish and Rayyan playing in the first match at 5pm, and Sadd and Gharafa facing off at 7pm.
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.