Al Rayyan, Shamal post victories

Al Rayyan overcame a spirited late fightback from Al Sadd to post a92-85 win in their Qatar Basketball League match at the Al GharafaSports Club yesterday.Former giants Al Rayyan appeared coasting to an emphatic win when theyscored 30 points in the third quarter to take what looked like amatch-winning 70-54 lead with 10 minutes of the match remaining.But Al Sadd didn’t give up hope and produced a scintillating 31-pointperformance to run their rivals close while restricting Al Rayyan tojust 22 points in the process.Tanguy Ngombo scored a match-high 31 points for Al Rayyan, 15 of themcoming from three-pointers, while Sherwood Brown scored 19. AbdelrahmanAbdelhaleem and Meho Haracic also made valuable contributions of 11points each.For Al Sadd, Julius Coles excelled with 25 points while Hiue Mozer had 21 and Darrius Oldham 19.In another match, Al Shamal edged Qatar Sports Club 74-68 with Darryl Bryant scoring 21 and Moses Ahambi contributing 18.Al Shamal led for 31 minutes and at times only marginally, but Qatar Sports Club couldn’t raise their game to cause an upset.Skipper Mohamed Yousif top scored for Qatar Sports Club with 23 points,while Brandan Kearney chipped in with 21 and Nicholas West 14.