Arabi took the first quarter honours leading 20-19, but Arabi fought back to edge ahead 51-39 at the end of the second period. Arabi, however, came up with 16 points in the third quarter while restricting their rivals to just eight points to take an eight-point advantage into the final quarter. Stover also excelled from three-pointer mark, drilling three out of five attempts.
Khalid Sulaimen Abdi and Williams Earl Byrd with 23 and 19 points respectively also excelled for the winners. For Al Shamal, Matthew Byran-Amaning scored 28 points and Dominic Davon James netted 18 points to take them to the second final since 2001, where they lost to Al Rayyan.
Later in the evening, Wakrah defeated defending champions Al Gharafa 87-76 in the second semifinal with the help of a fine 32-point effort by Erfan Ali Saeed. Gharafa took six points (26-20) lead at the end of the first quarter and later maintained the three-point advantage till the third quarter. Wakrah came back strongly in the fourth to first tie the game at 67-67 and later won it with 14 points.
Earnest lee Ross Junior also contributed 19 points for the winners, while Tod Edward Frank O’Brien scored 23 points for Gharafa.
Al Gharafa and Al Shamal had advanced to the semi-finals with almost identical wins over Al Rayyan and Al Ahli respectively.
Al Gharafa saw off Al Rayyan 92-83, while Hrvoje Pulijko excelled with 34 for Al Shamal as they edged out Al Ahli 91-84 on last Friday.
The final will be played on Saturday, 21 April at 6:30pm.
