Qatar Basketball

El Jaish, Al Gharafa cagers to clash for Emir’s Cup again

Defending champions El Jaish and three-time winners Al Gharafa Club will once again battle it out for the prestigious Emir’s Cup Basketball Championship glory after a year’s gap. The final is scheduled on April 22 at the latter’s home at 6:00 pm.

Centre Vernon Leon Macklin guided the army team’s attack and uncorked a brilliant double-double of 39 points and 14 rebounds to set up an 87-75 victory over eight-time winners Al Rayyan Club. With this triumph, El Jaish won the semi-final playoffs 2-0, spoiling rival team skipper Yaseen Ismail Musa’s farewell.

Veteran Musa was hoping to bow out of the game with three out of three titles. Earlier in the season, his Al Rayyan team bagged the QBF League crown and overcame El Jaish 2-1 in the semis before winning the Qatar Cup. But tonight, the mighty Al Rayyan collapsed under Macklin’s excellent show at the both ends of the court and lost.

Al Gharafa also completed a 2-0 series victory against disjointed Al Sadd and qualified for their fourth final in the most important competition on the domestic calendar. Point guard Kevin Galloway (15 points and 13 rebounds), forward Emmanuel Adako (15 points) and swingman Hassino Ndoye (14 points) all made impact with contributed to the victory.

In the 2013-14 season, Koussay Hatem-tutored Al Gharafa had a made a clean-sweep of whatever was at the stake. They had beaten the army team to win the only final between them. The unique feature about Al Gharafa is whenever they make it to the Emir’s Cup title clash, they won it. They did it in three finals before – they beat Al Rayyan in the 2009-10 and 2010-2011 finals. They got the better of El Jaish in the season before the last well.

In the beginning, both Al Gharafa and Al Sadd went nearly neck and neck. Twice Galloway and guard Abdulrahman Mohamed Saad, who finished with 10 points, lifted Al Gharafa to a seven-point gap in the first and second quarters. Al Sadd managed to reduce the gap on both occasions.

However, seven seconds before the interval, Ndoye triggered off a 12-point run at 30-28 that lasted four minutes and eight seconds and it effectively sealed the fate of Al Sadd. After that, Al Gharafa had to just pull along and they did it to nicety, winning by 11 points. For Al Sadd, Dante Nathanael Williams had a match-high 21 points and Mohamed Deba Kone collected 14.

Al Rayyan did well in the first two quarters to lead by just two points at the interval (35-33). But in the third quarter, El Jaish exploded and reeled off 33 points to 16, which swung the match into the army team’s favour. El Jaish, who led by 21 points at one stage (79-58) then hung on to win by 12 points.

The problem with the Al Rayyan was their failure to get their beyond-the-arc shots in. Normally they do well but tonight, they could sink only 10 off 34 shots. Lawrence Hill had 17 points, Tanguy Ngombo got 14, Malek Seleem Abdulla netted 12 and Mohamed Hassan Mohamed posted 10. For the winners, Adamu Saaka (14) and Ali Turki Ali (10) were other main scorers, besides Macklin.

Results

Al Gharafa Club beat Al Sadd Club 63-52 (halftime 32-28)

Main performers – Al Gharafa Club: Kevin Galloway 15 & 13 rebounds, Emmanuel Adako 15, Hassino Ndoye 14, Abdulrahman Mohamed Saad 10

Al Sadd Club: Dante Nathanael Williams 21, Mohamed Deba Kone 14

El Jaish beat Al Rayyan Club 87-75 (halftime 33-35)

Main performers – El Jaish: Vernon Leon Macklin 39 & 14 rebounds, Adamu Saaka 14, Ali Turki Ali 10

Al Rayyan Club: Lawrence Hill 17, Tanguy Ngombo 14, Malek Seleem Abdulla 12, Mohamed Hassan Mohamed 10

April 22 (final)

6:00 pm – El Jaish vs Al Gharafa Club