By Danotzki Santos
Doha: Fadi Abilmona helped Eljaish to clinch a thrilling 77-76 win over Qatar Sports Club in the Qatar Men’s Basketball League at the Al Gharafa Indoor Hall yesterday.
Abilmona maneuvered his way through a couple of picks and scored to push El Jaish to a heart-stopping win. The wily Eljaish guard had an awful shooting night going 7 of 21 from the outside but saved the day for Eljaish with his heroics in the end game and gave his team a 6-2 finish in the first round of the tournament.
Leading 76-74 with a minute left in the ball game, it looked like Qatar SC was headed towards pulling off a monumental upset against Eljaish but the black shirts muffed six opportunities from the free throw line and failed to win a single basket in the remainder of the match.
The game was hard-fought from the start, as the two teams exchanged leads 24 times, and were tied six times including at 40-all halfway in the game.
Qatar SC took the first period at 23-20, the third at 62-60 and were in control in the final period until Fadi hit the shot that stole the game away from their hands.
Mohammad Bakir led all scorers with 31 points. Fadi managed 16 points.
In the first game, Al Rayyan had the better of Al Sadd, 79-63.
The defending champs broke the ice and led outright 7-6 but Al Sadd was quick to respond and scattered a string of points to wrest the upper hand, 13-11. Targuy Ngombo and Erfan Saeed were scoring with impunity for Rayyan but Chris dela Rosa’s gritty plays kept his team at a 21-16 advantage at the end of the first period.
Al Rayyan gunners kept puncturing the hoops to establish a 37-28 half time advantage.
Coach Brian Rowsom’s charges used their running offensive to the hilt after the break keeping Southall and the rest of the white shirts catching up on defense as they pulled away 57-46 entering the final quarter.
The defending champions blew the contest wide open in the final period as they soared to their biggest advantage of 22 points going into the final buzzer.
THE PENiNsULA
