Action from the match between Qatar’s Al Rayyan (white) and Syria’s club Al Jaish in the Asia Champions Cup in Amman. Pictures: Jayaram

Agencies/Amman


Al Rayyan overcame first-half  blues to beat Syria’s Al Jaish 82-71 in the quarter-finals of the 24th FIBA Asia Champions Cup yesterday and thus became the first team to enter the semi-finals of this edition. This is their 10th semi-final appearance in the last 13 editions of the event.
Rayyan, twice former champions and four-time runners-up, will now aim for their seventh entry into the title round when they take on the winners of the quarterfinal between Jordan’s ASU and Kazakhstan’s BC Kapshagay.
Rayyan, who brought forward a 3-0 record from the prelimenary round, took their own time to settle down, thereby allowing the Syrian youngsters to keep pace with them.
“We were really bad in the first half. We allowed too many offensive rebounds. Our defense
allowed too many easy chances for them,” said Rayyan coach Brian Rowsom.
“We did nothing special,” Rowsom added on the improved performance in the third period, when Rayyan gradually tightened their grip on the game.
“We just stuck to the basics and did them right. Our defense began to work together well and that helped in us improving our rhythm in the offense.”
Veteran Yasseen Ismail led Rayyan’s scoring with 21 points and nine rebounds — both game-highs. Import Alvin Mofunanya added 13 points, with another seasoned campaigner Khalid Abdi and the youngest in the Rayyan line-up Mansour El Hadary contributing a dozen points each.
“We have a lot of work to do in our defense,” Ismail said. “Our target is to win the title, and we have a lot of work left to move in that direction.”
Jaish coach Haytham Jamil was ambivalent in his reaction.
“On the one hand I am very happy with the way we played the game, especially in the first half ,” he said, while adding, “But I think we lost our way in the second session with our outside shooting.”
Jaish shot a healthy 6/14 in the first half in their attempts from downtown, but went on to finish with a meager 8/27. Veteran Wissam Yakoub led Jaish’s scoring with 14 points before fouling towards the end of the game, but nine of them came in the first half.
Amhad Kaziha and Tarek Al Jabe each had 13 points to their credit.