by Danotzki Santos
Doha: Al Rayyan held Al Gharafa scoreless in the extra period and banked on Jeremeo Davidson’s back-to-back winners plus Boney Harold Watson’s couple of conversions from the stripe to notch a tight 78-72 first win yesterday in the Emir Cup basketball at the Al Gharafa Indoor Arena.
The Heir Apparent champions went back to Davidson early in overtime and the agile Beanpole, who was kept silent in the fourth period after scoring 27 points, delivered with successive clutch jumpers in the shaded area that brought his team to a 76-72 advantage from a 72-all tally in regulation.
Owing to the tight defense thrown on each other, both squads struggled in offense in the ensuing plays and with the breaks going the white shirts’ way as game time ticked away, Watson drew a charging foul from Calvin Earl Cage and sealed the win from the foul lane.
Al Gharafa took the half, 47-37 after being down 20-22 in the first period, and held the upper hand onto the dying seconds of the final period at 72-66 until Watson and YaseenMousa drilled back-to-back bombers to send the game into overtime.
In the other game yesterday, Al Arabi brushed aside their first assignment debacle going on serious business against Al Wakra to post an 81-68 victory. Al Arabi had a Mathew Rogers in full harness this time to pull off the win.
On Sunday, Shamal take on Eljaish at 5.00pm while Ahli clash with Al Sadd at 7.00pm.
the peninsula
