Abdi and Monroe excel as Arabi, Gharafa post wins

KhalidSuliman Abdi poured in 27 points as Al Arabi thrashed Al Wakrah 89-77in the Qatar Basketball League at the Al Gharafa Sports Club yesterday.AlArabi 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 internationalAbdi’s efforts.Abdi scored 10 times off 11 field goal attempts,giving him an amazing accuracy of 90.9%, while William Byrd with 18 andTalla Momar with 14 made significant contributions.Al Arabi were25-17 up at the end of the first quarter and they more or lessmaintained the same tempo throughout before closing out the match.Thirty-fiveof Al Arabi’s points came from the bench, highlighting the depth in theteam. On the other hand, Al Wakrah only had 14 in that department.ForAl Wakrah, Adamu Saaka scored 23 points, while Earnest lee had 15 andSrfan Ali Saeed 14. Meanwhile, Al Gharafa handed a 99-89 defeat to AlRayyan with Sammy Monroe tallying 24 and Mychal Ammons and James Justicecontributing 20 and 19, respectively.However, in contrast to thefirst match, Al Gharafa had to dig deep for their victory after bothteams were tied 79-all at regulation forcing overtime.Strangelyhowever, Al Rayyan, who had put up a gallant fight throughout implodedin extra time during which they only managed to score 10 points, whileAl 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.