El Jaish’s Larell Taggart attempts a shot during his team’s match against Al Rayyan in the Emir Cup basketball tournament at the Al Gharafa Indoor Hall yesterday.



By Sports Reporter/Doha



El Jaish edged Al Rayyan 84-82 in their second playoff game to stay alive for a spot in the Emir Cup basketball tournament last evening.
At the Al Gharafa Indoor Hall, Larell Taggart scored a game-high 26 points for El Jaish as they bounced back from a 93-73 defeat in the first game to clinch a thrilling win.
The contest will be decided tomorrow when the teams face off in the third of their best-of-three semi-final series.
El Jaish maintained a steady momentum throughout, leading at the end of every quarter except the first after which both teams were tied on 21 points.
But they took a 45-42 lead at the end of the second quarter and were 66-61 ahead after the third before Al Rayyan put up a gallant fight in the final period.
Taggart was well supported by Nathaniel Johnson with 24 points, while Deangelo Downey had 15, nine of which came off three-pointers.
For Al Rayyan, Desean Jones scored 25 points, while Boney Watson scored 17 and Collin Allred had 16.
El Jaish scored 24 second chance points as against Al Rayyan’s eight and had 50 points in the paint while their rivals were restricted to 38.
In a late match, Al Gharafa thrashed Al Sadd 99-78 to book a spot in the final. Gharafa had beaten Al Sadd in the first game of the play-offs comfortably and repeated their feat yesterday to stay on course for their third title of the season after winning the league and the Qatar Cup earlier.
The star of Al Gharafa’s comprehensive victory yesterday was Thomas Larry Blair who poured in a whopping 52 points, which included 18 from the three-point mark.
Blair converted 21 field goals from 31 attempts and was well supported by Samuel Monroe Jr who scored 27. None of the other Gharafa players made it into double figures.
For Al Sadd, Daud Musa and Alpha Bangura had 22 points each.