Al Gharafa basketball captain Omar Abdelkader Salem receiving the Qatar Cup at Al Gharafa Indoor Hall yesterday. Al Gharafa defeated defending champion Al Rayyan 104-91 in the final. Pic: Mohd Faraj ? See also page 16
Al Gharafa took sweet revenge on defending champions Al Rayyan to lift the prestigious Qatar Cup in a thrilling finale at the Al Gharafa Indoor Hall yesterday.
Just as coach Qusay Hatem expected, his team erased the memories of losing last year's final to Al Rayyan, with an impressive 104-91 win, defying a strong comeback from the Qatari basketball giants in the third quarter.
American guard Michael Taylor was the driving force behind Al Gharafa’s success, bagging 43 and making nine rebounds and six assists during his 29-minute stay on court. Sammy Monroe Jr. II also made valuable contributions to Al Gharafa, scoring 22 points with 11 rebounds.
For Al Rayyan, Abdelrahman Abdelhaleem was the chief scorer with 26 points. Also he made two assists and 8 rebounds during their unsuccessful bid to secure back to back titles.
Al Gharafa had a perfect start in the final to take the much needed lead at the end of the first quarter (35-23) but the reigning champions did not let the game slip away without a fight.
They reduced the gap with the help of impressive shooting and defending skills to add 26 points in the second quarter in contrast to Al Gharafa’s 18.
At one stage, the scores read 24-39 in favour of Al Gharafa, but within minutes, Al Rayyan collected back to back points to reduce the deficit, making it 48-39. At the end of the second quarter, Al Gharafa had extended the lead again, making it 53-49.
But Al Rayyan showed courage once again and added 27 points in the third quarter to pose a huge threat to Al Gharafa. Halfway into the third quarter, Addison Spruill shot back to back baskets, and Hassan Abdul Maati’s team took the lead for the first time in the final, making it 57-58 in favour of the defending champs.
After that, the fight to stay on top was on, but Al Gharafa once again took the lead at 69-68 to head to the final period with a score of 78-76 in favour of them.
But the fourth and final quarter showed less signs of passion from the reigning champions.
Al Gharafa went on to score back to back baskets while Al Rayyan struggled to keep the momentum going. Eventually the score shot up from 95-91 to 104-91 in the last three minutes to secure Qatar Cup glory for last year’s runner-up Al Gharafa.
