Constevous Jefferson and Anthony White combined for 51 points as Qatar Sports Club overcame a stiff challenge from Al Arabi in the Emir Cup basketball tournament last night.
In an entertaining match, it was Al Arabi who enjoyed the early exchanges before Qatar Sports Club began eroding their lead and got ahead after the second quarter to post an 86-79 win.
Al Arabi edged the first quarter 17-16 and when they managed to extend their lead by five points (40-35) with the match at half-way point, it appeared that were well and truly on their way to victory.
At one point in the second period they enjoyed a 40-27 advantage, but Qatar Sports Club produced eight consecutive points to narrow the gap to just five.
Al Arabi by then had lost a bit of their momentum and in the third quarter found themselves struggling in the wake of relentless pressure from their rivals
And when Qatar Sports Club hit a purple match late in the third quarter with their biggest scoring run of 11 points, Al Arabi’s confidence had dipped considerably.
Leading 65-62 after the end of the third quarter, Qatar Sports Club produced 24 points in the final period while restricting Al Arabi to just 14 to seal the outcome of the match in their favour.
Jefferson top-scored for Qatar Sports Club with 26 points, of which 12 came from the beyond the arc. He also excelled with his passing game by providing six assists. White scored 25, while Ibrahim al-Muftah had 11.
For Al Arabi, Narcellius Soyebo produced a match-high 32 points, with four three-pointers, while Oumar Seck and Masoud al-Nasr had 19 and 14 respectively.
In the second match of the day, Al Rayyan prevailed over Al Wakrah 89-83.
Al Rayyan, who are aiming for a domestic treble after winning the Qatar Basketball League and the Qatar Cup earlier in the season, were helped in their cause by Alban Ngombo (23), Lawrence hill (21) and Joseph Raffa (20).
Despite the fact that Al Rayyan won by only six points, there was hardly a spell in the entire match in which they were seriously threatened.
In fact, Al Wakrah held the lead only once, and that too by a mere point (9-8) early in the first quarter. But after that Al Rayyan kept their nose comfortably ahead to put the issue beyond doubt.
Al Wakrah had trouble holding on to the ball and conceded a whopping 23 turnovers that came in handy for Al Rayyan.
On Saturday, Qatar Sports Club meet Al Gharafa, while Al Rayyan take on Al Ahli.