Finals MVP: Demarius Bolds (193-G-84) of Al Rayyan Player of the Year: Demarius Bolds (193-G-84) of Al Rayyan Guard of the Year: Demarius Bolds (193-G-84) of Al Rayyan Forward of the Year: Shawn Taggart (207-F-85) of Al Jaysh Center of the Year: Vernon Macklin (208-F/C-86) of Al Jaysh Import of the Year: Demarius Bolds (193-G-84) of Al Rayyan Domestic Player of the Year: Yasseen Ismail Musa (203-F/C-80) of Al Rayyan Defensive Player of the Year: Dominic James (180-PG-86) of Al Rayyan Coach of the Year: Stergios Koufos of Al Rayyan
Sweet 16th League title for Al Rayyan - Apr 3, 2015
Al Rayyan Club scotched a strong comeback bid by El Jaish in the post-interval period and hung on to clinch the QBF League third final playoff 78-74 at Al Gharafa Club Indoor Hall on Thursday. After leading by 20 points at the interval, Al Rayyan, the first Qatari outfit to bag the Arab Clubs Basketball Championship last year, eked out a narrow four-point victory to emerge the champions for a sweet 16th time. They last won the League title two years ago. In the match, Al Rayyan looked more hungry for the success than El Jaish, whose only League crown came off in the 2007-08 season. In the second match on Tuesday, Al Rayyan were not able carry enough fans. But today, they had not only brought a matching number of supporters, they had got very noisy ones as well. The crowd spurred on both the teams throughout the game, which was both physical and tight with the key players being marked strongly. The referees were seen under pressure again but they did their job well. In the first quarter only, both Al Rayyan and El Jaish were locked four times. After El Jaish wrested the lead from Al Rayyn early into the game, the latter forged ahead to 11-9 with guard Demarius Bolds (193-G-84, college: Missouri Western) taking advantage of Fadi Hani Abilmona's foul and duly putting away both the free throws. Al Rayyan slowly built on the advantage as El Jaish missed a few scoring opportunities. Later, Al Rayyan were 23 points ahead early into the the third quarter (52-29), but they got into the team foul trouble and were rattled a bit by the recovering army team. Forward Shawn Taggart (207-F-85, college: Memphis) sparked a 10-0 run with a dunk and added four more points to bring El Jaish closer to Al Rayyan, who managed to finish the third 10-minute play with an advantage of 12 points. With fans going hoarse in the fourth quarter, El Jaish kept eating into the lead of Al Rayyan. The game swung to and fro and three-pointers by Abilmona (two) and Watson closed the gap to six points. In between, Taggart's foul sent Musa crashing to the floor. Al Rayyan point guard Dominic James (180-PG-86, college: Marquette) also hit a trey to widen the lead to nine points. As the ticked by, the pressure increased on Al Rayyan, they missed more shots than what they got in. First El Jaish came within four points with Alioune Ndoye sinking a downtown. Musa responded with a layup. Watson then hit a three-pointer from the centre and only three points kept the two teams apart with only half a minute left. Ndoye committed a foul on Malek Seleem Abdulla and he sent one of his crucial free throws to widen the lead to four points, which meant that El Jaish would need two shots to win within the available time. Watson launched a big drive but Davon blocked it brilliantly before before going out of the court. Abilmona, Taggart and Ndoye tried shots but failed to find the target and Patrick Ewing Jr. (203-F/C-84, college: Georgetown) Jr collected the rebound to the joy of the Al Rayyan teammates and fans. QBF President Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al Thani was the chief guest at the closing ceremony. Besides, the medals, he presented a cheque of QR600,000 to the winners. El Jaish earned QR400,000 and Al Gharafa got richer by QR200,00 for the third-place finish. Musa was delighted with the victory and said he was proud of his team."The League is my favourite championship. For two years, we were out of the finals. But we proved we have a great team and brilliant coach. We became the Arab clubs champions late last year and now we played superbly to win the League again. "El Jaish played a strong match and we'd to fight hard, but we managed to pull it off finally. We have superb imports and national team players playing for us. I want to thank the coach, players, support staff and our committed fans for this achievement. "We have two more big events to play. If we play at the same level and we've the same consistency, hopefully, we're going to go very far in them as well," added Musa. Point guard Davon expressed his joy over the success for his new club,"This is a great victory for us. I think this win as a whole is good for the Qatar basketball. The level of game is high and teams are very competitive. So it is great for us to win tonight. "I'm loving to be here in Al Rayyan. I've played a lot in the Europe. This is my first time in Qatar or the region. We've a great team. We've won one of the three big trophies and we'll play to win them too," he added. Malek Saleem (194-F-85) said,"Yeah, we're the champions after a gap of two years. It was the decider. We had to give it all and that was what we did. I've an injury but I could not sit out of this match. "The army team was very motivated and played hard. We were also committed and responded to their game. We wanted to win it more than the Army wanted and we showed it right from the very start. We're all so happy to win it the 16th time in 18 finals. We're proud of this victory," said Malek Seleem. Al Rayyan coach Stergios Koufos commented,"It was a second tough test for us and I'm glad that we cleared it too. I feel blessed to be working for Al Rayyan. We played a great game last year and won the Arab clubs title, which no Qatari team had done before. "Tonight, I'm blessed again with the Rayyan's triumph. I came here because of my choice. I wanted to come here and help the Qatar basketball with my knowledge. The players and the support staff all worked hard for this moment as one team. "We did a great job as we had less than one and a half days to prepare for the third match. My players deserved to win the title as they worked really hard. "All the four teams in the semi-finals don't have big difference, which will help the Qatar basketball develop. Al Gharafa have a great team and they have a great coach. Despite their problems, they played very well. Even El Jaish are also a great team. "We expected the second half to be tough one. Even in the earlier matches, no team could win easily. We were more specific about our defence and in the last moments, that worked to enable us to claim the important League crown," added the Rayyan coach. Courtesy of: qatar-tribune.com
Al Rayyan Crowned Arab Basketball Champions - Nov 8, 2014
Al-Rayyan beat Morocco's Association Sale 85-78 to land the Arab clubs basketball championship title for the first time in its history. The first three quarters of the game concluded in the Qatari club's favor, ending 22-17, 15-14 and 21-20, while the last one ended in a 26-26 draw. Sporting Al Riyadi Beirut won the third place by beating Egypt's Al Ahly 91-68 in a game that took place ahead of the final. Qatar Olympic Committee Secretary General HE Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who is also chairman of the Qatar Basketball Federation, congratulated Al-Rayyan on their victory in a phone call with the club's Vice President Rashid bin Nasser Al-Khalifa. Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman said Al-Rayyan's win is an honor for Qatar and a huge achievement for the Qatari sport. He also praised the strong performance of the team and the role of the technical and administrative staff in the achievement. Courtesy of: qna.org.qa
Samuel and Osaro dazzle as Al Gharafa clinch Qatar Cup - May 1, 2015
Last year's Emir Cup winners Al Gharafa edged El Jaish 65-57 to win the Qatar Cup at the Gharafa Stadium here yesterday. For the winners, Sammy Monroe (198-F-85, college: Newberry) and Manny Adako (203-F/C-87, agency: Court Side, college: Northeastern) did the bulk of the scoring. Samuel top scored with 23 points and Osaro found the target 20 times to set up the win. The duo did the bulk of the scoring for the winners. Al Gharafa were off to an impressive start and took a runaway lead of 12 points at the end of the first quarter, 22-10. In the second quarter, Al Gharafa continued to dictate terms and almost doubled the points difference 32-18. In the third period, Al Gharafa made sure El Jaish did not make a late recovery and maintained the upper hand over the proceedings, taking a 49-34 lead. In the last quarter, El Jaish tried to make a desperate bid to make a fight, but it was too late. Coach Koussay Hatem's boys held on to the lead and repulsed the late onslaught from El Jaish to win 65-57. Salem Omar Abdelkader scored ten points to contribute significantly to the win. Saad Abdulrahman Mohamed (7) and Downey Devan Deangelo (3) also found their names on the scorers list. For El Jaish, Vernon Macklin (208-F/C-86, college: Florida) top scored with 16 points. Abilmona Fadi Hani (12), Boney Watson (183-PG-78, college: Sam Houston St.) (10) and Mohammed Mohd Yousuf (10) were the other main scorers for coach Dragoslav Milovanovic's side. Shawn Taggart (207-F-85, college: Memphis) (7) and Nidoye Alloune Badra (2) were successful in their scoring attempts. Courtesy of: thepeninsulaqatar.com
El Jaish cagers claim Emir Cup - May 30, 2015
El Jaish eventually shrugged off their important-match heebie-jeebies and won the Emir Cup Basketball Championship with a spirited come-from-behind 80-70 victory against two-time former winners Al Sadd Club on Friday. This is the third title for El Jaish and first since the 2009-10 season when they had claimed the Qatar Cup. The army side emerged the winners once in the 2007-08 League. At the Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Stadium, the army team, playing their third final of the season and fourth in a row since losing the Emir Cup to Al Gharafa Club last season, recovered a bit after being shaken by Al Sadd, who looked fired up and were 20-12 up after the first 10 minutes. El Jaish managed to cut down the margin to 10 points at the interval (28-38), though they trailed even by double the points they had and another familiar surrender by the army looked on the cards with Al Sadd, powered by swingman Saad Abdulrahman Ali, pulling 18 points clear (34-16).However, Al Sadd's point guard Parish Petti sustained an ankle injury and it was followed by El Jaish's massive 21-0 run with two successive dunks by centre Vernon Macklin (208-F/C-86, college: Florida) to not only erase the deficit but also race away to a decisive 13-point lead in the third quarter. Later, El Jaish stretched their advantage to maximum 14 points (76-62) when Al Sadd had both centre Michael Fraser (203-C-84, college: Oklah.Baptist) and Khalid Suliman facing send-off with four fouls each. Al Sadd attempted hard to come back into their fifth Emir Cup final but El Jaish kept soldiering on through Fadi Hani Abilmona's treys and sealed the title. Abilmona was also adjudged the best player of the final and rewarded with QR10,000. Abilmona was delighted to have top-scored for his team and earned a double-double (22 points and 10 rebounds). Vernon Macklin contributed 21 points, while Boney Watson (183-PG-78, college: Sam Houston St.) collected 11 points and as many assists and Mohammed Yousuf Mohammed chipped in 10. Abilmona said,"We started the game in a bad way. That has been our major problem in the final for a long time. After that, we thought how to come back into the match. "We said at the interval that we are down only by 10 points but it is far from over. We needed to reinforce our defence and that was what we did. Thank God, we won the prestigious Emir Cup and we're really delighted with our performance tonight," added Abilmona, who sank six three-pointers in 10 shots. Vernon Macklin commented after the win,"We just pulled together, maan! Everybody wanted to win this cup and we just did that." He also lauded his teammates for creating spaces and passing the ball to him at the right time."I'm glad that my players put me in good positions and I just used the gaps to shoot baskets." "The coach said that it was a normal game even when we were behind and we've to just play hard basketball. That was what we did and managed to find our way back into the final, before winning it," added the 208-cm El Jaish centre. El Jaish coach Dragoslav Milovanovic said,"I'm proud of my players. We were down in the match but they staged a big recovery and won the most prestigious crown in the Qatar basketball. It was not an easy match at all. "Al Sadd had some injury problem and then their two players ran into foul troubles. We seized our chances and finished the job," he added. El Jaish's Boney Watson, for whom this was the fifth Emir Cup title after winning two each previously with Al Gharafa and Al Rayyan, said,"It was a total team effort. Even the guys off the bench came in and did something special. Everybody pulled his weight and did his part. It was a great team win. I don't know what else to say." "This was the third time charm, I think," he added. Another experienced player of El Jaish, Baker Ahmad Mohammed, said,"It's been long time since we won last. We're very happy. We missed two finals. Here comes the Emir Cup, the most important championship of Qatar. And we're the champions. It's an amazing feeling."Al Sadd coach Zoran Krokovic gave the reason for his team's loss after being on the top at one stage in the match."Our point guard Petti had an injury in the ankle and the team failed to moved on. Then we had foul problems. It was bad to have all the difficulties in the final. But this is the game and you've to bear it. "We played with a limited number of players, while El Jaish had a bigger bench. They could rotate their players and keep their main players fresh. This was not possible for us. We're feeling sad to have missed a good chance of winning the Emir Cup again," added Krokovic. Al Sadd's Ali, who had a game-high 27 points with four downtown shots, said,"We had a strong game in the first half. But we could not keep up our play in the second half due to various problems. El Jaish are a tough side and have played well throughout the season. We'll try to do better in the next season." Other Al Sadd players to make some impact were Erfan Ali Saeed (198-PF-83) (15 points) Perry Petty (185-PG-88, college: UTPA) (14 points) and Michael Fraser (4 points and 14 rebounds). Earlier, the final ran into some technical problems and had to be stopped soon after the start when El Jaish were 2-0 up. The table officials faced problems in running the scoreboard and court clocks simultaneously. After about 20 minutes, the snags were resolved and the time clocks above the board had to be switched off as they could not be operated precisely. FIBA Asia President Sheikh Saud bin Ali al Thani presided over the closing ceremony and gave away the trophy and prizes. Also present on the occasion was Qatar Basketball Federation President Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman al Thani. El Jaish were presented with a cheque of QR1,000,000, while Al Sadd took home QR 550,000. Courtesy of: qatar-tribune.com
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