Lebanon beats Jordan to last quarter-final place at Asian tourney

AMMAN – Jordan’s national basketball squad on Tuesday lost to Lebanon 80-76 in Round 2 Group F action of the FIBA Asia Championship in Changsha, China, which qualifies the winner to represent Asia at the 2016 Summer Olympics basketball tournament.

The Kingdom dug in and shaved points off the deficit until the very end, closing the gap to just three points. But it came up a couple of plays short of completing the comeback.

Though Lebanon had the wind in its sails and a big lead early in the second half, it almost saw the advantage evaporate. Jordan’s Mohammad Abdeen hit a three-pointer with 3:03 left in the contest to cut the deficit to 75-70. Jordan got the ball back after and could have pulled to within three but Alex Legion was off target with a jumper.

According to fiba.com, Jordan hit a drought from long range, making just 4 of 21 (19 per cent) while Lebanon was far more impressive 10 of 25 (40 per cent). 

In the end, Jordan dug its a huge hole that it simply could not climb out of against a Lebanese team that showed great mental fortitude after suffering heavy defeats to Korea and China, according to fiba.com. Lebanon is expected to be extremely dangerous opponent for the Philippines on Thursday.

Jordan, which is coached by former Philippine national men’s basketball team coach, Rajko Toroman, bowed out of the tournament with the loss. 

Jordan played the preliminary round in Group C losing to South Korea (87-60), beating Singapore (98-68) and losing to China 84-67.

In Round 2 the team joined the top three from Group D: Lebanon, Kazakhstan and Qatar. Jordan beat had earlier beaten Qatar (84-73) and Kazakhstan (87-73).

The Kingdom clinched a qualifying spot to the tournament when it came in runner-up at the West Asian Basketball Association (WABA) Championship earlier this summer.

It is the Kingdom’s 9th time at the Asian Basketball Championship for 2002 and 2014 West Asia champ Jordan. The country’s best performance at FIBA Asia was in 2011, where for the first time in history, Jordan reached the final but lost the chance to qualify to the 2012 Olympic Games after losing the game 70-69 to China and settling for runner-up. 

Jordan then played at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) for Men, but lost to Puerto Rico and Greece and was eliminated. The OQT gave Asia’s second and third teams a chance to qualify to the London Games basketball event. 

Although the men’s basketball team reached the 2010 World Championship — and was the only Jordanian team to actually reach a world championship in a team sport alongside the junior team in 1995 — official support for Jordan’s second most popular sport is seen as below par by most observers, leading to a decline in the game locally and a less competitive advantage on the regional scene.