Khalid
Suliman Abdi poured in 27 points as Al Arabi thrashed Al Wakrah 89-77
in the Qatar Basketball League at the Al Gharafa Sports Club yesterday.
Al
Arabi led throughout, hardly allowing their rivals to break free –
except in the final quarter when Wakrah scored seven straight points –
as they posted a fluent victory, chiefly due to Qatar international
Abdi’s efforts.
Abdi scored 10 times off 11 field goal attempts,
giving him an amazing accuracy of 90.9%, while William Byrd with 18 and
Talla Momar with 14 made significant contributions.
Al Arabi were
25-17 up at the end of the first quarter and they more or less
maintained the same tempo throughout before closing out the match.
Thirty-five
of Al Arabi’s points came from the bench, highlighting the depth in the
team. On the other hand, Al Wakrah only had 14 in that department.
For
Al Wakrah, Adamu Saaka scored 23 points, while Earnest lee had 15 and
Srfan Ali Saeed 14. Meanwhile, Al Gharafa handed a 99-89 defeat to Al
Rayyan with Sammy Monroe tallying 24 and Mychal Ammons and James Justice
contributing 20 and 19, respectively.
However, in contrast to the
first match, Al Gharafa had to dig deep for their victory after both
teams were tied 79-all at regulation forcing overtime.
Strangely
however, Al Rayyan, who had put up a gallant fight throughout imploded
in extra time during which they only managed to score 10 points, while
Al Gharafa had 20, giving the latter a convincing win.
For Al Rayyan, Tanguy Ngombo scored 25 points, while Stephen Hurt had 18 and Sherwood Brown 17.
