Al Sadd trounce Al Ahli, El Jaish beat Al Shamal

By Danotzki Santos/Doha

The Qatar Men’s league champions stormed to a 10-4 advantage riding on Rashad Anderson’s five-out-of-five field goal shooting early in the match.

Al Sadd then padded the lead to 26-15 by the end of the period as the rest of the squad simply outplayed their counterparts on both ends of the floor.

Al Ahli had no answer to the black shirts’ suffocating inside defence and could only manage a pair of baskets to get stuck to a 19-33 deficit in the early part of the second period, which worsened to a 30-49 disaster at halftime.

The white shirts came out blazing in the third and got a 12-6 onslaught going that sliced the lead to 11 at 44-55 with 2 minutes left.

Michael Benjamin Southall and Chris dela Rosa then strung up 6 points for Al Sadd for a 61-44 count to start the final period.

Al Sadd poured in 27 big points in the final period to subdue Al Ahli’s late attempt at coming back.

Meanwhile, Ali Turki had an explosive game, scoring 32 points in the first three quarters that gave El Jaish a comfortable 62-44 margin going into the final stage of their match against Al Shamal.

With their 73-59 win, Army improved to 1-1 and have their eyes set on their all-important final outing which will be against Al Sadd next Wednesday.

In today’s first game, Al Gharafa will try to get back with a win after a heart-breaking loss to Al Rayyan on Thursday, when they go up against Al Wakrah at 5 pm, while Heir Apparent Cup champions will test Qatar Sports Club in the main game at 7 pm.