This paper presents a new reaching law-based model reference quasi-sliding mode control strategy for discrete-time dynamical systems. The strategy ensures the quasi-sliding mode attributes defined in the seminal paper of Gao et al, but at the same time, it offers essentially improved system robustness. In particular, it is demonstrated that the application of the reference model results in the decreased width of the quasi-sliding mode band and guarantees smaller errors of all state variables. KEYWORDS discrete-time systems, model reference sliding mode control, reaching law 1440