Sport
Qatar Club, Gharafa rout opponents in Emir Cup opener
Qatar Club, Gharafa rout opponents in Emir Cup opener
Danotzki Santos/Doha
Chauncey Leslie poured in 21 of his game-high 36 markers in the first half to help Qatar Club carve a convincing 85-75 victory over Al Wakrah in the main game last night of the Emir Cup Basketball League at the Al Gharafa Indoor Arena. |
Qatar Club got off to a strong start, racing to an early 11-1 lead in the opening minutes of the game and went on to bury their counterparts at 26-8 at the end of the first period.
Leslie kept the surge in the second period, drilling jumpers with impunity to finish with a record scoring output at halftime and push the two-time former Emir Cup winners to an insurmountable 46-25 advantage going into the second half of the match.
Al Wakrah got their game going in the third quarter but the black shirts had an answer to almost every basket they made to keep them at bay at 65-46 before the final canto.
Meanwhile, Victor Hakim Thomas dished out a double-double performance, scoring 21 and hauling down 10 rebounds while Calvin Earl Cage contributed 19 points and 7 assists to help Al Gharafa pull off an 80-64 rout of Al Arabi earlier in the tournament opener.
The hosts played coherently throughout the match and banking on a potent starting five that includes Awako Emanuel, Omondi Robin Amoke and veteran Omar Salem.
Arabi, on the other hand while parading a pair of new talents in Ruben Emilio and Mathew Rodgers in place of the injured Jalloh Abdullai, struggled from the starting buzzer and trailed their tormentors in double-digits most of the way.
With their first wins, Gharafa and Qatar Club are now tied on top of Group 2 both with 1-0 win-loss slate.
Group 1 teams plunge into action in today’s twin-bill, featuring Al Sadd going against Al Shamal in the first game, and El Jaish facing Al Ahli in the main game.
The teams in each group play each other in a single-round round-robin preliminaries, with the top team advancing to the semifinal stage outright, while the second and third-ranked teams go through the quarterfinals stage.
The quarterfinals will be cross-over knock-out matches, one pairing the 2nd ranked team in Group 1 with the 3rd placer in Group 2 and the other having the 2nd ranked team in Group 2 meet the 3rd best in Group 1.
The penultimate stage will be a pair of best-of-three tussles, between the top finishers in the preliminaries and the survivors in the quarterfinal showdowns, to determine the final contenders to the most prestigious basketball title in the kingdom.