Thursday, July 17, 2008

AIA to meet defending champ Jordan for Jones Cup gold

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AIA 97-90 QAT

Actually, you can say it's North Dakota State beat Qatar 97-90. NDS Bison teammates Brett Winkelman and Ben Woodside combined for 57 points and helped AIA beat Qatar NT to advance to the championship game.

AIA has won seven straight following the opening loss to defending champ Jordan, AIA's opponent tomorrow in the championship game.

Winkelman scored 31 points and pulled down 8 rebounds while point guard Ben Woodside had 26 points and dishing out five assists. The NDS combo eliminated Qatar's upset bid in the final quarter.

Qatar trailed by as many as 18 but cut the deficit to three in the end of the third, 67-64.

AIA: B. Winkelman 31p+8rb, B. Woodside 26p+5a+2s
QAT: E.A. Saeed 31p+7rb, D. Mousa 29p

Kazakhstan 66-56 Taiwan

Taiwan NT was determined to end its six game losing streak, but Kazakhstan wouldn't agree. Kazakhstan used an 18-8 final quarter to knock out the home team.

Once again, Taiwan's poor rebounding proved to be one of the deciding factors. It was outrebounded 40-17.

KAZ: A. Ponomarev 20p+18rb, M. Voyeikov 16p
TW: Hsu Chih-chan 14p, Yang Chin-min 13p,

Egypt 85-81 Korea (42-52)

Korea University Select Team shared a same fate with Korea NT which is playing in the Olympic Qualifiers in Athens, Greece: they couldn't hold on to a double-digit lead.

Korea NT lost a heartbreaker that cost it a quarterfinal berth in the qualifiers, failing to defend a 10-point lead in the final two minutes against Canada. Korea was eliminated with two losses.

In Taiwan, Korea Univ. Select Team had squandered two games with double-digit advantage and they did it again today. Korean kids once again let a 10-point halftime lead slip away against Egypt, ending up losing by four.

Egypt outrebounded Korea by 28.

EGY: El-Saharty 22p, El-Kernady 15p
KOR: Heo Il-young 19p, Choi Yun-ho 19p, Byun Hyun-soo 14p+8a

Jordan 75-60 Australia (33-34)

Leading by one at the half, Australia U-19 NT lost its poise against the experienced Jordan NT. Emus team was outscored 21-8 in the game-changing third quarter of a physical game.

It also lost Mitchell Young to a wrist injury. Young hurt his wrist in a clash with a teammate on defense. His status was unclear.

From what I've seen, Jorden Page and Matthew Dellavedova dominated the ball too much and that hurt the whole team and eventually cost them the winnable game.

Don't get me wrong. Page and Dellavedova are both talented. But they failed to play within a team scheme in this game, playing too many one-on-ones and hurrying shots.

With the win, Jordan was ready to defend its Jones Cup title. It won the 10-team round-robin format 2007 Jones Cup last year.

JOR: A. Idais 23p+11rb, Z. Alkhas 13p+6rb, J.A. Shmala 12p
AUS: J. Page 15p, M. Dellavedova 14p, C. Ellis 12p

Friday schedule

1300 Korea-Taiwan (7/8)
1500 Kazakhstan-Egypt (5/6)
1700 Third-place game: Australia-Qatar
1900 Championship game: AIA-Jordan