Qatar Sports Club powered their way past Al Gharafa in first overtime for a 95-87 victory in the Qatar Men’s League here yesterday.
After trailing Al Gharafa for the first three quarters, albeit only marginally, the teams fought a neck-and-neck fourth period, when Nemanja Besovic’s two-point layup with five seconds on the clock tied the scores at 74-all.
That took the game into overtime, but QSC were quick to assert their domination to come up with a whopping 21 points in five minutes to clinch the match.
Jeffrey Newberry top-scored for Qatar Sports Club with 29 points while Mohamed Yousuf and Aaron Rountree chipped in with 22 and 21 respectively.
Newberry also produced nine assists, while Rountree had eight.
Qatar Sports Club had 21 fast break points and 18 second chance points as against their rivals’ nine and seven. The closeness of the match in regulation could be gauged from the fact that the lead changed hands 15 times, while the scores were tied on 10 occasions. For Al Gharafa Nicholas Stover excelled with 27 points, while Franklin Session scored 22 and Nedin Muslic 21.
In the second match of the day, Al Wakrah eased past Al Rayyan 89-74 with Joshua Caldwell scoring a game-high 30 points. Caldwell scored 12 from three-pointers and he was given superb support by Darrius Oldham and Justin King, who scored 21 and 17, respectively.
Al Wakrah led 32-20 at the halfway point but a third quarter effort of 24 points helped them grab a 56-45 cushion with 10 minutes remaining.
But all hopes of a Rayyan fightback were thwarted when Al Wakrah produced a whopping 33 points to seal a comfortable win. For Al Rayyan, Geron Johnson scored 29 points, while Alioune Ndoye and Jarett Croff scored 16 and 13, respectively.