2013 Jones Cup Roundup: Day Six

Taiwan A, sans its main big men, escaped a potentially embarrassing loss to Taiwan B. In other news, Iran, Korea, and USA continued their winning ways on Day 6 of the 2013 Jones Cup.

Yang Chin-Min helped lead TPE A over
their younger counterparts.

In the first game of the day, the Americans got their act together just in time in the second half to repulse the Egyptians, 88-83. Curtis Marshall and Eric Hicks combined for 37 points and 22 rebounds as Team USA dominated the paint en route to their third win in five games. The Americans outrebounded Egypt, 44-29, but they allowed the African side to convert more than half of their attempts from long range. Ibrahim El Gammal, in particular, was quite impressive, hitting 5 triples on his way to 28 points. Sherif Abdalla also hit his mark, making 4 treys to end up with 18 markers. Egypt sinks to 3-3.

Curtis Marshall erupted for 22 points against the Egyptians.

The second game of the day featured the Jordanians failing to get up after a slow start, 67-57. Once again, Korea used its speed and shooting to throttle past Jordan in the first term, 18-16, and they played keep-away all throughout the game to bounce back after losing to Iran on Day 5. Old man Kim Joo-Sung paired up with youngster Kim Min-Goo to lead the EABA side to win #4. Joo-Sung supplied 15 points for coach Yoo Jae-Hak, while Min-Goo pumped in 2 triples on his way to 10 markers. Korea was beaten on the boards, but they made up for it with great ball distribution, registering 19 assists. Mahmoud Abdeen and AJ Zaghab led JOR with 14 and 10 points respectively.

Yang Dong-Geun tries a jump pass over Wesam Al Sous.
(image from Jumpball.co.kr)

Kim Min-Goo gets into trouble in the paint.

In the third game, Iran defeated Japan, 60-55, in a hotly contested affair. Hamed Haddadi outplayed his Japanese counterpart, Kosuke Takeuchi, as the Iranians remained unbeaten. Haddadi netted 14 points in under 16 minutes of play, while Takeuchi was limited to only 5 markers in more than 36 minutes of action. Iran played without star swingman Samad Nikkhah Bahrami, who twisted his ankle in their previous game. Mahdi Kamrani made up for his absence with a dozen markers in just 14 minutes of play for the WABA powerhouse, which is expected to do well in the upcoming FIBA Asia tournament in Manila. Kosuke Kanamaru nailed 3 triples to lead Team Hayabusa’s losing effort, while young gun Yuta Watanabe added 10 points, 7 boards, 4 steals, and 2 blocks. IRI hiked its slate to 5-0, while JPN remained winless in 5 outings.

Asghar Kardoust collars the rebound against Japan.

Kosuke Kanamar tries to drive past Iran's Hamed Sohrabnejad.

Yuta Watanabe had a good showing for
Team Hayabusa.
(image from japanbasketball.jp)

The day ended with the two hometown teams slugging it out in fantastic fashion. In the end, despite the upstart TPE B boys having the upper hand for most of the match, the senior TPE A squad prevailed, 90-89. The older Taiwanese had trouble containing Liu Cheng and Chiang Chia-Jung, with the young SBL duo scoring hitting a combined 6 treys and scoring 26 and 15 points respectively. Chiang also added 8 rebounds and 3 steals in a great show of potential. Once again, it was veteran sniper Lin Chih-Chieh who saved the day for the elder Taiwanese, scoring 24 points, hauling down 4 rebounds, and dishing out 7 dimes as TPE A stayed just half a game behind the second-place Koreans. Tsai Wen-Cheng added 14 points and 8 rebounds, while CBA player Yang Chin-Min scored a dozen markers. TPE A coach Hsu Chin-Che chose to rest his key big men – Quincy Davis, Tseng Wen-Ting, and Tien Lei – for this game.

Zhou Boxun goes up for the easy
deuce against TPE A.

2013 William Jones Cup Standings

Team	Wins	Losses
Iran	5	0
Korea	5	1
Taiwan A	4	1
USA	3	2
Egypt	3	3
Lebanon	2	3
Jordan	1	4
Taiwan B	1	5
Japan	0	5

BOX SCORES:

USA over EGYPT, 88-83

USA 88 - Marshall 22, Kearse 15, Hicks 15, Dailey 10, Melvin 10, Owens 9, Horton 7, Barnes 0, Burrell 0, Awere 0, Bray 0

EGY 83 - El Gammal 28, Abdalla S 18, Marei 12, Khalifa 9, Abou Khadra 7, Abdalla R 7, El Lethi 0, Khorshid 0, Tawfik 0, Abou Shousha 0

QS: 25-20, 50-50, 71-70, 88-83

KOREA over JORDAN, 67-57

KOR 67 - Kim JS 15, Kim MG 10, Lee 9, KimJK 8, Yang 7, Yoon 4, Choi 4, Park 4, Cho 3, Kim TS 3, Moon 0, Kim SH 0

JOR 57 - Abdeen 14, Zaghab AJ 10, Baxter 8, Al Hamarsheh 7, Al Sous 6, Hadrab 5, Abu Quora 3, Shaher 2, Bassam 2, Al Najjar 0, Abu Ruqayah 0, AL Faraj 0

QS: 18-6, 29-21, 45-36, 67-57

IRAN over JAPAN, 60-55

IRI 60 - Haddadi 14, Kamrani 12, Arghavan 9, Davari 8, Sohrabnejad 6, Afagh 5, Kardoust 4, Veisi 2, Jamshidi 0, Davarpanah 0, Sedighi 0, Davoudi 0

JPN 55 - Kanamaru 13, Watanabe 10, ota 7, Hiejima 7, Matsui 7, Takeuchi 5, Hinkley 4, Sakurai 2, Tanaka 0, Noguchi 0

QS: 20-20, 33-27, 47-40, 60-55

TAIWAN A over TAIWAN B, 90-89

TPE A 90 - Lin CC 24, Tsai 14, Yang 12, Lin CW 6, Lu 6, Hung 6, Lee TW 6, Lee HL 5, Creighton 5, Ke 3, Chou 3

TPE B 89 - Liu 26, Chang 15, Zhou 12, Lo 10, Chen KC 8, Tsai 7, Huang 5, Chih 2, Lai 2, Lin 0, Chen HJ 0

QS: 13-16, 41-42, 65-70, 90-89

Unless otherwise specified, all images are from 2013wjc.basketball-tpe.org.