Team USA finally notched a victory in the 2013 Jones
Cup at the expense of Taiwan B, while Taiwan A sent the Jordanians to their
third defeat in a row. Other Day 4 winners were Iran and Korea.
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| Lin Chih-Chieh and the Taiwanese broke the Jordanians on Day 4. (image from Da Village) |
In the first game of the day, the Americans were
finally able to put together 40 minutes of good basketball as they beat the
young Taiwan B team, 101-69. Eric Hicks led the way for Team USA with 18
points, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks, while Huang Chen led the Taiwanese with 18
points, 7 rebounds, and 1 steal. So dominant were the Americans that they more
than doubled up on Taiwan’s rebounding output (57-26), were +6 in steals, +3 in
blocks, and shot 50% from the field while limiting Taiwan to just 33% FG
accuracy. Curiously, more than half of the home team’s attempts were from long
range (40). They made only 9. Taiwan sank to 1-3 while Team USA went up to 1-2.
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| Chen Tse-Yun tries to hoist one over Marcus Melvin. (image from Da Village) |
Whatever gains Egypt had in their last two wins were
hardly noticeable in the second game of the day, which featured the Iranians
blowing the African nation out, 90-54. Iran’s top players – Hamed Haddadi,
Samad Nikkhah Bahrami, and Mahdi Kamrani – all returned to action after resting
on Day 3, and they made their presence felt. That Big Three of coach Memi
Becirovic combined for 28 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, and 8 steals in just
60 total minutes of play. Iran forced Egypt to commit 25 turnovers mainly
because of 15 steals. The Iranians, FIBA Asia Cup champs from last year, were
also +15 in assists and shot a sizzling 42% from long range, making 8 of their
19 attempts from rainbow country. Ahmed Tawfik was the only Egyptian in
double-figures with 16 points on 4-of-10 FG shooting. Iran moved up to 3-0
while Egypt absorbed its second loss in four games.
In the third game, Korea defeated Lebanon, 61-52,
thanks mainly to a terrific first half. The WABA side played a lot better in
the third and fourth quarters, but Korea’s 16-point lead was just too big to
overhaul. Fadi El Khatib and Mohammed Ibrahim paired up for 34 points to lead
Lebanon’s losing cause, but the Cedars shot themselves in the foot by missing
16 of their 21 three-point shots. Korean coach Yoo Jae-Hak enjoyed another
balanced output from his wards, with Cho Sung-Min’s 12 points leading the way.
Korea connected on nearly 40% of its three-point tries while also playing good
defense and forcing Lebanon into 19 turnovers. The 2013 EABA champions remained
idle atop the standings at 4-0 while Lebanon is now tied for fourth place with
Egypt at 2-2.
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| Kim Tae-Sool tries to thread the needle agains Lebanon's Ali Mahmoud. |
The day ended with the hometown favorites, Taiwan A, bouncing
back from a surprising blowout loss to Lebanon on Day 3 by overwhelming the
Jordanians, 91-61. Despite losing the rebounding battle to Jordan, 34-48, the
Taiwanese still found little trouble in getting their third win. TPE shot a
blistering 57% from beyond the arc, with Lu Chen-Ju and Tseng Wen-Ting hitting
at least 3 each. They also did a better job in distributing the ball and
defending, registering +8 assists, +6 steals, and forcing JOR into 17 errors.
Lu and Tseng dropped 16 and 13 points respectively to power Taiwan, with Tsai
Wen-Cheng (14 points) and Lin Chih-Chieh (10 points) also scoring in
double-figures. Quincy Davis played under 22 minutes for coach Hsu Chin-Che,
but he produced 8 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 rejections. Jordan was led by its
own naturalized player, Jimmy Baxter, who had 16 points and 4 rebounds while
veteran guard Wesam Al Sous tallied 12 points and 3 dimes. Jordan remained
winless in 3 games while Taiwan A moved to third position at 3 wins and 1 loss.
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| Jet Chang goes up strong against the Jordanian D. |
2013 William Jones Cup Standings
|
Team
|
Wins
|
Losses
|
|
Korea
|
4
|
0
|
|
Iran
|
3
|
0
|
|
Taiwan A
|
3
|
1
|
|
Egypt
|
2
|
2
|
|
Lebanon
|
2
|
2
|
|
USA
|
1
|
2
|
|
Taiwan B
|
1
|
3
|
|
Jordan
|
0
|
3
|
|
Japan
|
0
|
3
|
BOX
SCORES:
USA over TAIWAN B, 101-69
USA 101 - Hicks 18, Marshall 14, Burrell 12, Melvin 10,
Vanlandingham 9, Dailey 8, Barnes 8, Owens 6, Kearse 6, Awere 5, Horton 3,
Rougeau 2
TPE B 69 - Huang 18, Chiang 11, Zhou 10, Lai 10, Chen TY 8,
Lin 7, Chih 3, Liu YK 2, Lo 0, Chen KC 0, Tsai 0, Chen HJ 0
QS: 24-11,
53-32, 77-52, 101-69
IRAN over EGYPT, 90-54
IRI 90 - Kardoust 17, Jamshidi 15, Arghavan 11, Afagh 9,
Veisi 9, Sahakian 5, Davari 5, Davarpanah 3, Hassanzadeh 2, Davoudi 1,
Sohrabnejad 0, Sedighi 0
EGY 54 - Tawfik 16, Khalifa 9, Marei 9, El Sabagh 5, El
Gammal 4, Abou Khadra 4, Abdalla 3, El Lethi 2, Khorshid 1, Abou Shousha
1, Abdalla S 0
QS: 19-8,
44-17, 63-32, 90-54
KOREA over LEBANON, 61-52
KOR 61 - Cho 12, Yang 8, Kim JS 7, Lee 6, Yoon 5, Park 5,
Kim MG 5, Kim JK 4, Choi 4, Kim TS 3, Kim SH 2, Moon 0
LIB 52 - El Khatib F 23, Ibrahim 11, Akl 5, Ammoury 2,
Abdel Nour 2, Haidar 2, El Khatib H 0, Souaid 0, Saoud 0, Mahmoud 0
QS: 12-5,
34-18, 48-35, 61-52
TAIWAN A over JORDAN, 91-61
TPE A 91 - Lu 16, Tsai 14, Tseng 13, Lin 10, Tien 9, Davis 8,
Chang 6, Creighton 6, Chen 5, Yang 4, Hung
0, Ke 0
JOR 61 - Baxter 16, Al Sous 12, Zaghab AJ 11, Hadrab 9,
Abdeen 5, Al Dwairi 3, Bassam 2, Zaghab MJ 1, Abu Ruqayah 0, Al Najjar 0,
Shaher 0
QS: 19-16,
32-26, 63-41, 91-61
Unless otherwise specified, all images are from
2013wjc.basketball-tpe.org.
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