Action from the second game of the three-match El Jaish-Al Rayyan finals at the Al Gharafa Club yesterday.

By Sports Reporter/Doha

El Jaish survived a final quarter charge by Al Rayyan to draw level in the second match of their best-of-three finals and set up a potential explosive decider on Friday.
In a thrilling match yesterday at the Al Gharafa Sports Club, El Jaish appeared to be heading towards a comfortable win when they led 69-60 at the end of the third quarter before Al Rayyan produced a last-gasp effort to run them close.
With less than a second to go and trailing 82-84, Al Rayyan’s Dominic Davon missed a three-pointer to help El Jaish seal victory and live another day.
The final couple of minutes had the spectators on the edge of the seats as the fate of the match hung in the balance.
At 81-81, a dunk by Larell Taggart proved decisive and afterwards  Mohamed Yousuf scored off a free throw for El Jaish to give them and 84-81 lead.
An although Davon produced a free throw, his desperate attempt for a three-pointer right on the buzzer proved unsuccessful much to Al Rayyan’s disappointment.
El Jaish’s Taggart was the top scorer for either side with 31 points, of which 28 came from field goals. Leon Macklin with 20 and Harold Boney Watson with 17 also made valuable contributions.
Foe Al Rayyan, Davon was the top scorer with 20 points, followed by Ysaeen Ismail Musa with 18, armond Bolds with 16 and Salem Abdulla with 15.
El Jaish scored 54 points in the paint, while Rayyan had 36.  El Jaish also scored more points from turnovers and second chances.
Earlier, Al Gharafa defeated Al Sadd 76-69 to take third position.
Al Gharafa trailed 12-21 at the end of the first quarter but rallied strongly to clinch the match in the end, with Osaro Adako (20), Deangelo Downey (19) and Abdelkader Salem (18) the main scorers.
For Al Sadd, Rashad Woods scored 31 points while, Saeed Erfan Ali and Tyrone Anderson had 17 and 14 respectively.


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