Lebanon,
reeling after getting sad news from home, lost a close one to Jordan. Other Day
7 results had Iran blasting Team USA, Korea asserting its dominance over Japan,
and Taiwan floundering against Egypt
 |
| Loren Woods finally suited up for Lebanon in the Jones Cup. |
In the first
game of the day, the Lebanese lost to Jordan, 67-69, after getting some
unfortunate news about the brouhaha concerning their basketball federation in
Beirut. Apparently, FIBA’s deadline for the controversial LIB basketball issues
to be resolved already passed. The players were told to get ready for the worst
possible scenario – suspension. Of course, Lebanon didn’t exactly play with a
lot of gusto throughout the match, despite naturalized player Loren Woods
finally arriving to suit up for the Cedars. Woods accounted well for himself,
scoring 10 points, grabbing 12 rebounds, and blocking 2 shots. Fadi El Khatib,
who was set to play in maybe his last FIBA Asia tournament in Manila this
coming August, wound up with 23 points to lead all scorers, while Amir Saoud
hit 4 triples to finish with 15 markers. On the other end, Jimmy Baxter dropped
13 to lead Jordan, while big man AJ Zaghab tallied 11 points, 5 boards, and 1
rejection. Both LIB and JOR are now at 2-4.
 |
| Jimmy Baxter led Jordan to an upset of Lebanon. |
The second
game of the day featured Iran just outclassing the Americans, 86-62, even
without star swingman Samad Nikkhah Bahrami. Bahrami continued to nurse his
sprained ankle, choosing to miss the remainder of the Jones Cup so he can heal
up for the FIBA Asia tourney. He was hardly needed, however, as Hamed Haddadi
had another strong showing – 25 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 blocks in only 25
minutes of play. He was ably supported by shooter Hamed Afagh, who finally
broke out of his slump by hitting 5 triples on his way to 17 points. Team USA
was led by 19 points and 7 rebounds from Curtis Marshall, while Eric Hicks had
a dozen markers. Iran remains unscathed after 6 games, while the Americans fall
to 3-3.
 |
| Michael Kerse and the Americans fell to Iran. |
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| Mohammad Jamshidi is coming along as the heir apparent to Samad Nikkhah Bahrami. |
In the third
game, Korea outscored Japan in the middle two periods, 44-27, and just coasted
the rest of the way for a decisive 75-66 triumph. Once again, the immortal Kim
Joo-Sung had his way around the basket, scoring 16 points on 5-of-7 FG
shooting. He was backstopped by his frontcourt mates Lee Seung-Jun and Kim
Jong-Kyu, both of whom combined for 22 points and 13 rebounds. Cho Sung-Min
also did well, contributing 11 markers. Makoto Hiejima’s 20 points paced Team
Hayabusa, which was -7 in rebounds, -7 in assists, and -5 in steals. Kosuke
Takeuchi continued to struggle, shooting 4-of-11 from the floor for 13 points
and only 3 rebounds. Japan is the only winless team at 0-6 and Korea remains in
second with 6-1.
 |
| Yuta Watanabe challenges Korea's Kim Joo-Sung. |
 |
| Lee Seung-Jun goes up strong against Kosuke Takeuchi. |
The day ended
with Taiwan surprisingly losing to Egypt, 72-62, mainly because top player Lin
Chih-Chieh was rested. Tsai Wen-Cheng led Taiwan’s losing charge with 15
points, while Tien Lei hit three triples to score 11 markers. Naturalized
center Quincy Davis also did well with 10 points and 8 boards, while Egypt was
spearheaded by 20 points, 4 assists, and 3 steals from Ibrahim El Gammal, while
big man Assem Marei nailed 18 markers and 13 boards. Despite Taiwan’s fast
start in the tournament, they’ve slowed down significantly now that they’ve
been forced to periodically rest some of their stars in preparation for the
FIBA Asia joust. Egypt (4-3) is now just half a game behind their victims, who
are at 4-2.
 |
| Tien Lei's scoring was not enough to power Taiwan past Egypt. |
In other news,
Lebanon has been officially suspended by FIBA. Here’s the text from The DailyStar:
FIBA confirmed
the international suspension of the Lebanese basketball federation Friday, with
the national team to be stripped of their chance to compete in the upcoming
FIBA ASIA Championship in the Philippines next month. The Lebanese federation
failed to meet the latest FIBA requirements, as the deadline for agreement
passed without a solution.
FIBA had given
Lebanon until 1 p.m. Friday to solve the crisis by withdrawing the legal cases
filed by Amchit and Mouttahed against the governing body, as well as all the
parties signing the MOU proposed by the Asian federation and the Sports
Ministry, but talks to resolve the issue reached an impasse.
Talks to find
a solution were centered around withdrawing the legal cases, and in return two
members would resign from the governing body to join the other six members who
resigned last week. Consequently the federation would be dropped and new
elections would take place.
However,
things didn’t reach a happy ending with both parties exchanging conditions,
even after FIBA extended the deadline until 6 p.m. Friday.
“I am deeply
sorry to announce the end of Lebanese basketball which has been slayed by
politics and sectarianism, as well as the parochial interests,” Sports and
Youth Minister Faissal Karami said. “We have worked hard to meet the FIBA
requests, but unfortunately we haven’t found a required response from all the
parties, whether from the politicians or the governing body or the clubs
concerned.
“We have
realized everyone is placing their personal benefits over those of the common
good, and we couldn’t do more to save the game. There is a dirty political
atmosphere in the country and it has ruined everything, including the unity of
the Lebanese society,” added Karami, who led an attempt to find a middle ground
for the parties concerned.
The Lebanese
basketball federation informed FIBA late Friday about the results of the
meetings, with highest international authority then confirming the ban. Lebanon
will now be replaced by Iraq during the upcoming FIBA ASIA Championship.
Elsewhere, the
Lebanese national team were adversely affected by the current atmosphere
enveloping the game, as they were dealt a narrow loss against Jordan 69-67
during the friendly Jones Cup tournament.
The players
and the staff issued a brief statement from Taiwan stressing their anger over
the situation.
“We will not
play any more games until they go home and leave us to play for our national
team. We will stand against those who are hurting our lives, because we all
make a living from the game,” the statement said.
“We call on
President Michel Sleiman and head of the Olympic committee Jean Hammam to act
quickly to save the national team and keep our dream alive to qualify for the
World Championship.”
 |
| Faisal Karami announces the bad news to the Lebanese public. (image from Sports-Leb.com) |
2013 William
Jones Cup Standings
|
Team
|
Wins
|
Losses
|
|
Iran
|
6
|
0
|
|
Korea
|
6
|
1
|
|
Taiwan
A
|
4
|
2
|
|
Egypt
|
4
|
3
|
|
USA
|
3
|
3
|
|
Lebanon
|
2
|
4
|
|
Jordan
|
2
|
4
|
|
Taiwan
B
|
1
|
5
|
|
Japan
|
0
|
6
|
BOX SCORES:
JORDAN over LEBANON
69-67
JOR 69 - Baxter 13, Zaghab AJ 11, Al Hamarsheh
9, Hadrab 8, Abu Ruqayah 7, AL Najjar 7, Al Sous 7, Abu Quora 4, Shaher 3, AL
Dwairi 0, Abdeen 0, Al Faraj 0
LIB 67 - El Khatib F 23, Saoud 15, Woods 10, Akl
6, Kanaan 5, Abdel Nour 4, Ammoury 3, Haidar 1, Ibrahim 0, Souaid 0, Mahmoud 0,
El Khatib H 0
QS: 17-6, 32-23, 48-52, 69-67
IRAN over USA,
86-62
IRI 86 - Haddadi 25, Afagh 17, Davoudi 9,
Kardoust 8, Sahakian 8, Jamshidi 6, Arghavan 6, Kamrani 3, Sohrabnejad 3, Veisi
1, Davarpanah 0, Davari 0
USA 62 - Marshall 19, Hicks 12, Kearse 7, Awere
7, Owens 4, Vanlandingham 4, Barnes 3, Bray 3, Melvin 2, Horton 1, Dailey 0,
Rougeau 0
QS: 26-11, 41-26, 66-48, 86-62
KOREA over JAPAN,
75-66
KOR 75 - Kim JS 16, Lee 12, Cho 11, Kim JK 10,
Kim SH 7, Moon 6, Kim NG 6, Yang 5, Kim TS 0, Yoon 0, Park 0
JPN 66 - Hiejima 20, Takeuchi 13, Ota 6, Matsui
5, Watanabe 4, Tanaka 4, Hinkley 4, Kikuchi 4, Noguchi 3, Sakurai 2, Kurihara
1, Kanamaru 0
QS: 18-16, 40-26, 62-43, 75-66
EGYPT over TAIWAN
A, 72-62
EGY 72 - El Gammal 20, Marei 18, Abdalla R 8,
Abou Shousha 7, Tawfik 7, Khorshid 5, Khalifa 5, Abdalla S 2, Abou Khadra 0, El
Sabagh M 0
TPE A 62 - Tsai 15, Tien 11, Davis 10, Hung 8, Yang
7, Tseng 4, Creighton 4, Chen 3, Lu 0, Chou 0, Lee HL 0
QS: 12-7, 28-17, 49-38, 72-62
Unless
otherwise specified, all images are from 2013wjc.basketball-tpe.org.
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