Qatar Basketball

Al Shamal shock Al Wakrah

Newcomers but no pushovers.  Al Shamal, woke up from a 30-minute slumber and rampaged their way towards a record-breaking 26-2 final quarter barrage en route to a 65-59 come-from-behind bashing of a shocked Al Wakrah squad last night at the continuation of hostilities in the Qatar Men’s Basketball League (QML) being held at the Al Rayyan Indoor Sports Arena.

Delighted Shamal mentor Hesham Shaaban and his wards thus barged into the winning column and redeemed themselves from miserable debacles in the hands of no less than the reigning QML champions Al Rayyan on Tuesday, and by Emir Cup titlists Al Sadd in their league debut. 

Down in the doldrums at 57-39, the northerners clamped down on Coach Ihab Galal’s boys and forged an awesome 19-0 run behind the deadly sniping of the prolific Mezie Nwigwe to grab the driver’s seat at 58-57 in a span of 6 minutes.

And after momentarily ceding the upper hand, Shamal capped their best showing so far with a 7-0 run in the twilight stage to close the doors on Wakrah. 

Nwigwe spearheaded Shamal’s hard earned victory with 34 points,  9 rebounds and 4 assists. William Tayof scored 15 points, dealt 10 assists and 4 rebounds while Dauda Lhison added 10 points and 9 rebounds.

Meanwhile, powerhouse Al Rayyan dumped struggling Qatar Sports Club, 91-64 in the one sided main game later in the evening.

Yaseen Mousa and Boney Harold Watson paced Rayyan’s second straight win with 26 and 24 points respectively.

Coach Brian Rawsom and his charges are locked with idle Al Sadd, El Jaish and Al Arabi at the top of the league standings each with identical 2-0 win-loss slates. Qatar went down to 0-2.

In tonight’s games, Al Sadd and El Jaish stake their unbeaten records and go up against each other at 5:00 pm. In the main game, Arabi try to join the winner at the top at 3-0 when they take on Gharafa who will try to improve from 1 win-1 loss card.

El Jaish beats Al Gharafa, Al Arabi pip Al Ahli 7-11-2012

Fadi Abilmona was summoned back to the game in the final quarter and rallied his team to a 15-0 assault of Al Gharafa en route to a 76-64 final count that gave El Jaish their second win last night in the Qatar Men’s League at the Al Rayyan Indoor Sports Arena. 

Both squads fought tooth and nail in the first period exchanging leads before the former closed the first 10 minutes with a single basket advantage at 21-19.

Gharafa played harder on defense in the second quarter and zoomed to a 6-point advantage, 37-31, behind the efforts of Abdulrahman Saad.

El Jaish crawled back via 7-2 run to come to within 1 before Ali Abdullah gave Gharafa some breathing space at 41-38 on a strong drive beating the halftime buzzer .

Army came out of the midgame break blazing and strung up 6 unanswered points to pull ahead 44-41 in the first 3 minutes of the third but Gharafa came back with an 8-4 flurry to regain the lead at 49-48 and kept a 53-52 margin after 3 quarters.

Meanwhile, Al Arabi proved too strong for Al Ahli as they waltzed their way to a 94-60 win against their rusty opponents to claim their second straight victory in the league.

Alvin Mofunanya played without relief and paced Arabi to insurmountable margins as early as the second period, 59-29 and 79-41 in the third all the way to a 34-point advantage at the buzzer.  Alvin and William Byrd registered double-doubles and combined for 43 points and 41 rebounds to assert Arabi’s dominance in the paint.

Games take a break and continue on Saturday, November 7 at the Al Rayyan Indoor Arena. Al Wakrah and A Shamal try to barge into the winners’ circle as they face each other in the curtain-raiser while Al Rayyan attempts to clip their second win against Qatar Sports Club.