Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Day 7: Athletes in Action tops preliminary round

The preliminary round concluded tonight as Athletes in Action took the top seed in the semifinals with a 6-1 record and Jordan at No. 2 with 5-2.

Australia, Qatar and Egypt had a three-way tie at 4-3 but Australia and Qatar advanced to the semifinals by a better head-to-head record. Egypt, which returned to the Jones Cup after 14 years, finished as 5th-place in the prelim.

Korea and host Taiwan both finished 1-6 but Taiwan ranked 7th for defeating Korea in the head-to-head matchup.

The semifinals begin tomorrow with AIA takes on No.4 Qatar and No.2 Jordan meets No. 3 Australia. In the 5-8 classification games, Taiwan meets Kazakhstan and Egypt faces Korea.

AIA 102-86 Taiwan (52-44)

Taiwan managed to stay with AIA for 10 minutes before collapsing again. AIA turned the game into its own playground with many dunks and fastbreak layups to make the score out of reach.

AIA: Laval Lucas-Perry 22p, B. Winkelman 21p, B. Woodside 16p
TW: Yang Chin-min 29p, Lee Hsueh-lin 12p, Lin Ching-pang 11p, Chen Tzu-wei 9p

Egypt 74-66 Kazakhstan (35-35)

EGY: T. El-Gannam 17p+12rb, W. Badr 15p+6rb+4a+5s, R. Gunady 14p
KAZ: A. Ponomarev 13p+13rb

Korea 82-76 Australia (32-31)

Koreans got their precious first win in the tourney by defeating Australia with a brilliant shooting game, making 10 threes and shooting 25 for 40 from two-point range.

KOR: Choi Yun-ho 30p, Byun Hyun-soo 15p, Kim Myung-hoon 14p, Heo Il-young 13p
AUS: C. Ellis 18p, B. Motum 16p

Jordan 79-52 Qatar (42-28)

Jordan made 15 three-pointers, seven came from J.A. Shmala, in the game and buried Qatar early. With the win, Jordan climbed up to No.2 in the preliminary while Qatar dropped to fourth-place.

JOR: J.A. Shmala 23p, A. Idais 12p
QAT: S.A. Ali 18p, E.A. Saeed 15p

 

Final preliminary round standing:

1. Athletes in Action 6-1
2. Jordan NT 5-2
3. Australia U-19 NT 4-3
4. Qatar NT 4-3
5. Egypt NT 4-3
6. Kazakhstan NT 3-4
7. Taiwan NT 1-6
8. Korea University Select Team 1-6