Jordan 61-39 Kazakhstan (31-25)
Jordan had another subpar shooting night but fortunately there was always defense to fall back on. The defending champ limited Kazakhstan to four points in the final quarter en route to a 22-point lopsided win.
Kazakhstan suffered the first loss after going 2-0. After scoring 25 in the firt half, Kazakhstan managed to score only 14 points in the final 20 minutes.
Jordan: J.A. Shmala 9p, Zaid Alkhas 9p
Kazakhstan: Seva Fadeikin 10p
Egypt 99-96 Korea (44-57)
The most exciting game on a day full of routs. Korea, the only winless team in the eight team field, came out with fire in their eyes, making nine three-pointers in the first quarter alone.
Korea shot the lights out in the first half, leading by 13 at intermission after 14 three-pointers made.
Tarek El-Gannam, who was kept on the bench for the entire first half, came to the rescue in the final 20 minutes. El-Gannam, who had 14 points in 15 minutes last night, once again changed the momentum of the game with his inside presence.
Jordan made it a one-point game in the end of the third, trailing 70-69, and briefly took the first lead in the game early in the 4th quarter. With 40 seconds left and Korea trailing by three (95-92), Kim Myeon-hoon's traveling violation ruined Korea's chance to tie the game.
Both team engaged in a series of intentional fouls in the final 30 seconds with Egypt trying to prevent Koreans from making another three and Koreans trying to freeze the time and close the gap. But Wael Badr did not miss any free-throws and Korea failed to make the desperation three-pointer.
Korea shot 20 for 31 as a team from the three-point territory.
Egypt: Wael Badr 21p (11-11 FT), Tarek El-Gannan 16p+9rb, M. El-Kerdany 18p, M. Khorshed 14p, Ram Gunardy 10p
Korea: Choi Yun-ho 20p, Heo Il-young 18p, Park Rae-hun 17p, Kim Hyeonmin 17p
AIA 98-67 Australia (48-40)
For a while, everyone thought the high schoolers from Down Under might humiliate a collection of U.S. college players. That did not happen. AIA used a 26-7 third quarter to turn a close game into a rout, closing out the game with a 31-point win.
It was a pretty nice present for AIA coach Dave Bliss on the day of his 30th wedding anniversary.
Australia led 24-18 in the end of the first period. Bliss decided to go small and it paid dividends. Australia failed to keep up with the AIA and could only watch the Americans pull the game away.
AIA: Brett Winkelman 16p, Dane Brumagin 14p, Wellington Smith 14p
Australia: M. Dellavedova 15p, Bradley Simpson 11p
Qatar 84-80 Taiwan
E.A. Saeed scored 12 of his game-high 21 points as Qatar jumped to a 12-point lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Taiwan trailed by as many as 19 before closing the gap in garbage time.
Qatar: E.A. Saeed 21p
Taiwan: Yang Che-yi 17p, Ouyang Ching-heng 16p, Lu Cheng-ju 12p, Yang Chin-min 11p
Standings:
1. Kazakhstan NT 2-1
1. Jordan NT 2-1
1. Egypt NT 2-1
1. Qatar NT 2-1
1. Athletes in Action 2-1
6. Australia U-19 1-2
6. Taiwan NT 1-2
8. Korea Univ. Selects 0-3