\
Al Ahli player Bradford Cory tries to score while being challenged by Al Sadd’s Salman Khalid during the Emir Cup basketball match at Al Gharafa Indoor Arena yesterday. RIGHT: Al Shamal player Crawford Chaz (right) vie for the ball possession with Eljaish’s Ndoye Alioune. Pictures by: Kammutty VP
by Danotzki Santos
Doha: Al Sadd trounced Al Ahli 89-66 at the Emir Cup basketball preliminaries at the Al Gharafa Indoor Arena.
The Qatar Men’s league champions stormed to a 10-4 advantage behind Rashad Anderson’s five out of five field goal shooting early in the match.
Al Sadd would then pad the lead to 26-15 by the end of the period as the rest of the squad simply outplayed their counterparts on both ends of the floor.
Al Ahli had no answer to the black shirts’ suffocating inside defense and could only manage a pair of baskets to get stuck to a 19-33 deficit in the early part of the second period, and which worsened to a 30-49 disaster at halftime.
The white shirts came out blazing in the third and got a 12-6 onslaught going that sliced the lead to 11 at 44-55 with two minutes left.
Michael Benjamin Southall and Chris dela Rosa then strung up six points for Al Sadd for a 61-44 count to start the final period.
Al Sadd poured in 27 big points in the final canto to subdue Al Ahli’s late attempt come back.
Meanwhile, Ali Turki had an explosive game, scoring 32 points in the first three quarters that gave Eljaish a comfortable 62-44 margin going into the final stage of their match against Al Shamal.
With their 73-59 win, Army improved to 1-1 and have their eyes set on their all-important final outing which will be against Al Sadd next Wednesday.
In today’s first game, Al Gharafa clash with Al Wakra at 5:00 pm.The Peninsula
