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El Jaish poured it on in the final period to outplay Al Arabi 73-62 to win the third place in the Qatar Men’s Basketball League last night at the Al Gharafa Indoor Arena.
Arabi looked rusty and were visibly out of sync in the early part of the match as they trailed 7-11, 2:30 remaining in the first period.
Big man Alvin Mofunanya would however ignite a 7-0 assault to take the Heir Apparent Cup champions on top, 14-13 at the end of the quarter.
The red shirts kept the surge with a 13-2 spurt to pad the lead to 27-15 early in the second period but El Jaish came back to trim the deficit to 23-29 as the burly Mohamed Yusuf and sweet-shooting Turki Ali sparked a 17-7 flurry to wind up the first 20 minutes of play just a basket behind at 32-34.
Veteran Mohamed Bakir and back-up point Narwan Salah would then combine to pull Army to a 39-36 advantage as the third canto unfolded, and kept the rest of the white shirts in the offensive flow thereon as they held on to the driver’s seat at 53-52 going into the final period.
El Jaish, with Salah at the helm, unleashed a 10-2 attack at the onset of the final period to pull away 63-54, and outplayed their rivals in the remainder of the game to run away with the victory.
Earlier in the week, Gharafa took fifth place after beating Al Wakrah who settled for sixth while newcomers Al Shamal got seventh place when they beat Qatar Club.
The third place showdown was a prelude to the QML Finals do-or-die game between Al Rayyan and Al Sadd which is set tonight at 6:00 pm at the same venue.