By Danotzki Santos/Doha
ALL FOR THE BASKET: Action from the match between Al Arabi and El Jaish yesterday
Coach Hatem Mamlouk led Al Arabi to a masterful domination of Erik Rashad and his wards last night to clinch their third straight win and advance to the semi-final round of the Emir Cup.
The HH Heir Apparent champions led throughout and finished the game with an impressive 92-77 victory over El Jaish.
Starting strong behind spitfire Mansour Elhadary, Al Arabi went 12-11 at the onset and finished the first period, 23-15. Elhadary, going five out of seven from the field early in the game, capped his sterling first half performance with a high of 18 points ushering his team to a 44-28 advantage before the break.
Al Arabi kept charging in the third and overpowered their counterparts on the offensive front to pull further away 69-47 before the final period.
Jalloh Abdullah spearheaded the onslaught at the start of the final period and combined with Shelton Colwell, Alvin Mofunanya and William Byrd to take over the scoring chores and push Al Arabi to their biggest lead, 84-57, with 4 minutes remaining in the game clock.
El Jaish took it strong on the inside in the final minutes and managed a 20-8 finishing kick to cut the deficit to 15 at the final buzzer. Al Arabi, having topped Group I, will play Al Sadd in the best of five semifinals starting on Tueday while Al Gharafa battle Al Rayyan which coasted its way to an 88-65 rout of Qatar Sports Club in the second game.
The Qatar Men’s League champions led throughout and dominated their rivals in all departments posting 54 rebounds and 35 assists as against Qatar Club’s 28 and 11.