Shamal, Gharafa register wins

Mildon Ambres scored 28 points while Kamal Hachad contributed 27 as Al Shamal posted a 90-67 victory over Al Ahli in the Qatar Basketball League yesterday.
Al Shamal were comfortably ahead throughout, and although Lamar Demond and Jimmy Williams excelled for Al Ahli, they couldn’t make change the course of the match.
Demond had 26 points while Williams scored 18 but such was Al Shamal’s domination that their efforts went in vain.
Al Shamal led 23-12 after the first quarter and never looked back, before winning by 23 points in the end.
Abdulqadir Kosar with 16 points, including nine off three-pointers, also excelled for the winners.
“It was a great effort by the team, they didn’t allow Al Ahli to take control at any point in the match,” Al Shamal coach Hassam Hachad said.
“Mildon and Kamal were outstanding,” he added.”
In the second match of the day, Al Gharafa kept their nerves to beat El Jaish 77-67.
Kevin Galloway was the star for Al Gharafa with 24 points, nine of which came from three-pointers. Mohamed Saad with 14 and Osaro Adako and Abdulkader Salem with 13 and 12 respectively also excelled for the winners.
Al Gharafa led 24-14 at the end of the first session and 42-29 after the second, and although El Jaish put in an improved performance thereafter, it was too little too late for them.
Leon Macklin of El Jaish was the top-scorer in the match with 30 points but received precious little support from his teammates, of whom only Atif Elhadry scored in the double digits (13). Al Gharafa scored 19 points from turnovers, while Jaish had 12. The winners also had 13 fast-break points as against Jaish’s 1.
Today, Al Arabi will play Al Khor at 5.30pm followed by a match between Al Rayyan and Al Wakrah at 7.15pm.