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| JUBILANT ALL: Qatari players celebrate after beating Egypt in a thrilling basketball semi-final in the Arab Games at the Al Gharafa Stadium yesterday |
Hosts Qatar stormed into the final of the men’s basketball competition shocking three-time defending champions Egypt 75-72 in an absorbing semi-final encounter here at the Al Gharafa Hall yesterday.
The hosts, who rallied from a 14-point deficit at the breather, will be meeting Jordan in the final today. Jordan confirmed their final berth beating Tunisia 74-69 in the second semifinal played later in the day.
The star of the match for Qatar was Ali al-Turki, who put the hosts in the driver’s seat, just three minutes before the final buzzer. Al-Turki’s crucial three points towards the end sealed Egypt’s fate.
“I talked to the guys at halftime and told them it did not matter they were ahead by 14 or by 20. What mattered was the way we played the rest of the game,’’ said Qatar coach Qusay Khalaf.
“We played with great spirit in the last half of the game. It says a lot about my players. Inshaallah we will win the gold. Qatar has never won the gold medal at the Arab Games and Inshaallah we will win,”added Khalaf.
Speaking after the loss a dejected Egypt coach Amr Abouelkhir, whose team will now play Tunisia for the third place, said: “We can say that the team who got lucky at the end won. The Qataris were luckier than us at the end of the game and won. But this is sports, there arealways winners and losers.”
The visitors had taken a healthy lead in the fourth quarter but Qatar rallied from behind to seal the victory. And Egypt coach Abouelkhir blamed the referees for the sudden turn of events.
“I don’t want to say it explicitly, but the referees allowed the Qataris to play in a certain way. This had a big influence on the end result because the referees allowed them to do some defence manoeuvres that are not very legitimate.
“We were expecting this anyway but we do not like to blame the referees for every loss. Let’s just say that the luckiest team won. So congratulations to them and hard luck for us.”
In the first semifinal, Rasheim Wright excelled for Jordan, scoring 28 points. Wright started the game off by putting Jordan on the scoreboard first. Then, when Tusinia closed to within three points of a tie with 3min 30sec of regulation time left, he sank five free throws in the dying minutes.
“It’s crunch time. Every possession counts. Every basket counts. I’m happy with my game but I’m happier that we won,” said Wright. The Jordan-Qatar final is a repeat of a first-round game when Jordan emerged victorious 77-71.
Both finalists Qatar and Jordan are evenly matched. Jordan have averaged 74.7 points a game while winning five games and losing one. Qatar sit seventh at 73.3 with a 5-1 won-lost record.
Qatar have the better defence, allowing their opponents a tournament-best 64.3 points a game, while Jordan are sixth on 69.2. Both teams have tall players to battle for rebounds and both like to play a fast-paced game.
Wright will have to be at the top of his game if Jordan fancy their chances of winning the title. He has been the pick of the scorers for Jordan and goes into the championship match averaging 21.7 points per game over six games, which makes him the highest-scoring forward on average in the final.
“No pressure. I’ve been here before. No pressure at all,’’ revealed Wright, who will clearly be the thorn in Qatar’s way.Qatar’s Saad Abdulrahman however is confident that his team can springa surprise again and even tackle Wright.
“It will be a tough match but we are ready for the challenge. Wright is one hell of a player. He can pretty much do everything on the floor. We’ve basically just got to contain him, not let him get off early, keep the ball away from him as much as possible, and we’ll have a chance.”
Abdulrahman, speaking about the loss to Jordan in the first-round clash, said, “We didn’t play too well. Even though we were leading by seven points with about four minutes left we gave up the lead and ended up losing the game.
“But we learned from it, we know what we did wrong and hopefully we correct those little mistakes. We’ve got 24 hours, I think, and hopefully we will have a victory.”
Egypt, however, managed to upset hosts Qatar in the men’s handball final for gold. They defeated Qatar 26-21 in another absorbing contest at the Women’s Indoor yesterday.
The star of the match was Egypt’s left-back Hussein Ali Zaki who scored an incredible 12 goals from 17 shots
Meanwhile, Morocco have over taken Qatar in the medals tally and have jumped up the ladder to the three spot.
They now have 35 golds, 21 silvers and 52 bronze, while Qatar have 32 golds, 33 silvers and 37 bronze. Egypt continue to lead the medals tally with 86 golds, 73 silvers and 62 bronze, while Tunisia are placed second with 48 golds, 42 silvers and 36 bronze.