Gharafa, Shamal enter Emir Cup semis

AlGharafa and Al Shamal advanced to the semi-finals of the Emir Cupbasketball tournament with almost identical wins over Al Rayyan and AlAhli respectively at the Al Gharafa Sports Club yesterday.A fine30-point effort by Sammy Monroe was the highlight as Al Gharafa saw offAl Rayyan 92-83, while Hrvoje Pulijko excelled with 34 for Al Shamal asthey edged out Al Ahli 91-84.Al Gharafa took the first quarterhonours against Al Rayyan, leading 20-16, but the latter fought back toedge ahead 45-42 at the end of the second period.Al Gharafa,however, came up with 28 points in the third quarter while restrictingtheir rivals to just 18 and took a seven-point advantage (70-63) intothe final 10 minutes.That proved handy as Al Gharafa withstood some tense moments to clinch the match comfortably.PrestonKnowles and Abdulrahman Sadd with 23 and 22 also excelled for thewinners. For Al Rayyan, Terrel Von Stoglin’s match-high 40 points wentin vain.In the second match, Pulijko scored 21 of his 24 points from the three-point mark to help Al Shamal oust Al Ahli.AlShamal led 21-16 after the first quarter only to be overtaken at theend of the second. However, they improved their position with someexcellent play later to wrap up the match with a fair degree of comfort.MathewBryan-Amaning with 19 and Dominic James with 18 also made significantcontributions for the winners, while Christopher Jones top scored for AlAhli with 35.