Stephen Hurt shines with 22 as Al Rayyan see off Al Ahli

A commanding performance saw Al Rayyan power past Al Ahli 96-67 in the Qatar Basketball League at the Al Gharafa Club yesterday.
There was no indication the outcome would be so one-sided when the first quarter saw Al Ahli take an 18-16 lead.
But the next 10 minutes saw the match turn on its head as Al Ahli ran out of steam allowing their rivals to take a 42-32 advantage.
There was no respite after that for Al Ahli and Al Rayyan built on their lead to eventually win by a whopping 29 points.
 Stephen Hurt was the top-scorer for Al Rayyan  with 22 points, while Mohamed Hassan had 18 and Sherwood Brown scored 17.
Hurt scored thrice from the three-point mark while Hassan shot four. Al Rayyan had 27 points from turnovers while Al Ahli had just seven.
Nemanja Besovic scored a game-high 25 points for Al Ahli but had the misfortune of ending up on the losing side.
The second match yesterday was relatively closer with Al Khor prevailing over Al Shamal 86-79 thanks to Khobi Williamson’s 27 and Darrell Blackmon’s 23.
Al Khor led 27-17 at the end of the first quarter and 49-34 after the second to virtually assure themselves of a win.
They took a 69-52 advantage into the final quarter, and although Al Shamal came up with a big 27-point effort in the final 10 minutes, it was too little too late for them.
Moses Ehambe was the top-scorer for Al Shamal with 24, while Justine Monroe had 19 and Mame Ndour 17.
Today Qatar Sports Club play Al Sadd at 5.30pm while Al Arabi meet Al Gharafa at 7.30.