El Jaish’s Vernon Macklin (second from right) scored 26 points in his team’s 80-71 win over Al Rayyan yesterday. Picture at right, Al Sadd’s Michael Fraser (right) dunks a two-pointer against Al Gharafa during their Emir Cup semi-final tie yesterday. PICTURES: Othman al-Samaraee
By Sports Reporter/Doha
Runners-up El Jaish made it to the Emir Cup final after winning their second match in the best-of-three semi-finals against Qatar League champions Al Rayyan at Al Gharafa Sports Club yesterday.
Jaish had won the first match 104-80 on Friday, and yesterday they posted an 80-71 win to make it to the finals.
Their opponent in the final will be decided on Tuesday, when Gharafa and Al Sadd play the third of their best-of-three semi-finals matches.
After losing their first match 63-80 on Friday, Sadd beat the defending champions 77-70 yesterday to force the tie into the third match.
Rayyan’s Demarius Armond Bolds was the top-scorer in the match with 29 points, but that wasn’t enough to prevent Jaish’s march into the final.
Vernon Macklin topped the scoresheets for Jaish with 26 points. Macklin dunked 10 two-pointers and six free-throws for his points haul. Fadi Hani Abilmona added 18 points, while Boney Harold Watson pitched in with 16 for the eventual winners.
James Dominic Davon added 20 points for Rayyan.
Earlier in the day, Sadd did not allow Gharafa to lead even once in the match. They even had a daunting 23-point lead over their opponents at 39-16 in the second quarter. While Gharafa did well to reduce the deficit, it eventually wasn’t enough to secure a spot in the finals.
Saad Abdulrahman Ali and Michael Fraser combined well for Sadd, scoring 20 points each, while Parish Petti and Erfan Ali Saeed added 15 and 12 respectively.
Between the two of them, Ali and Fraser dunked 13 two-pointers, two three-pointers and eight free-throws.
For Gharafa, Samuel Monroe Jr was the leading scorer with 18 points, while Omar Abdelkader Salem, Devan Deangelo Downey and Abdulrahman Mohamed Saad added 15, 14 and 13 points respectively.
