Al Gharafa thrashed Qatar Sports Club by a whopping 41-point margin in the Qatar Men’s League yesterday.
In a hopelessly lopsided match, Al Gharafa topped 30 points in each of the four quarters to record a 127-86 victory that brought to the fore the inequalities between some of the sides in the tournament.
Sammy Monroe was the top scorer for Al Gharafa with 32 points, but five other players also managed double digit scores as Qatar Sports Club wilted under their rivals’ onslaught.
Alexander Arnold also excelled with 24, 12 of them coming from three- pointers. Al Gharafa enjoyed leads of 31-12, 62-35 and 94-67 before sealing their win with 33 points in the final 10 minutes.
Edward Justice finished with 33 for Qatar Sports Club but the huge loss took the sheen off his game-high score. Quinton Doggett was second best with 28.
In another match, Al Wakrah overcame a slow start to swamp Al Khor 94-66.
Al Khor enjoyed a 16-11 lead at the end of the first quarter, but Al Wakrah fought back and edged their way up through the second and third.
In the final 10 minutes of play, Al Wakrah turned the match decisively in their favour by scoring 32 points, at the same time restricting Al Khor to just 11.
Thomas Blair nailed four of his eight three-point attempts to lead the score sheet with 29 points for Al Wakrah, while Olatokunbo Ayeni and Emir Mujkic had 28 and 20, respectively.
For Al Khor, Gary Layton scored 24 and Rickey Young 17.
LEFT PHOTO: Al Gharafa’s Saad Abdulrahman Mohamed in action against Qatar SC during their match yesterday. RIGHT PHOTO: Al Wakrah’s Olatokunbo Ayeni (second from right) goes for a basket during the match against Al Khor yesterday.
