By Danotzki Santos/Doha
With a powerhouse line-up bannered by two of the country’s top cagers, it looked like there was nothing else the defending champions needed more to notch their fifth win, but El Jaish proved a hard nut to crack.
Al Rayyan starved in offense against a determined El Jaish in the early quarter and banked on a strong push in the payoff period to pull out a 61-47 win last night in the Qatar men’s Basketball League at the Al Gharafa Indoor Arena.   
Fadi Abilmona was missing his shots but Mohamed Baker and the rest of the Army hit their stride early as they kept the defending champions within reach, 16-17, at the close of the first period.
EL Jaish upped the tempo and pounded the boards at the start of the second quarter to roll out an 8-0 run and snatch the upper hand, 24-17.
Boney Harold Watson broke Rayyan’s long silence with a basket but  Ziad Guled answered with a trey as Army stayed in command, 27-19.
As Army’s ace point guard sat on the bench after picking his third personal foul, Al Rayyan took advantage and stepped on the gas to come back with an 8-2 surge to wrest the lead, 29-27, at half time.
Al Rayyan was dominant at the onset of the third and led 33-31 but Fadi kept the fire burning for El Jaish pacing a 9-2 uprising to put his team ahead 40-35 before Brian Rowsom’s charges brought the game to another deadlock at 40-all.
Rayyan played better defense in the fourth period and as Targuy Ngombo and Yaseen Mousa taking over the scoring chores pegged a 55-45 advantage, with 3:00 left to play.
In the other game earlier, Al Gharafa took a lopsided 81-45 victory over Al Ahli.
The white shirts, led by Omar Salem, hardly flexed their muscles to claim their third win in five outings as they got their flawless offense going all night against Ahli’s token resistance to get the game in the bag as early as the end of the third period when they by 34 big points at 64-30.
Nothing right went Ahli’s way from the start as they helplessly let their foes to pull away outright 11-28 in the first period before getting buried further at 19-44 at the half.
Salem lorded it over everyone with 23 points and 9 rebounds.
Al Sadd will try to snatch their fifth win today as they face Qatar Sports Club at 5:00 pm will Al Arabi lock horns with Al Wakrah in the main game at 7:00 pm.