Led by naturalized Marcus Douthit, who had 24 points and 11 rebounds, Philippines upset two-time defending champion Iran Saturday in the opening day of the 2011 William Jones Cup invitational tournament in Taipei.
Philippines NT was more prepared against Iran, who came to Taipei without one of its key players Samad Nikkhah. According to Iranian head coach Veselin Matic, Hamed Ehadadi did not practice much with the team before arriving in Taiwan.
In the other game, Taiwan NT welcomed back Chen Hsin-an, who haven't been playing for Taiwan for years, and defeated a young and inexperienced Japan 99-72.
Philippines 73-59 Iran
PHI: M. Douthit 24+11, A.M. Barroca 13+7
IRN: H. Ehadadi 25+9, M. Kamrani 18
Taiwan 99-72 Japan
TWN: D. Creighton 18, Tseng Wen-ting 15, Lu Cheng-ju 12
JPN: Keijuro Matsui 13, Yuta Watanabe 12
Korea 110-50 Malaysia
KOR: Kang Byung-hyun 17, Moon Tae-jong 17, Cho Sung-min 16, Ha Seung-jin 10+9
MY: Li Wei Chee 12
Joran 91-72 UAE
JOR: R. Wright 15, Z.A. Abbas 14, A.J. Zaghab 12+8
UAE: O. Alameri 19
Standings:
Jordan 1-0
Korea 1-0
Philippines 1-0
Taiwan 1-0
Iran 0-1
Japan 0-1
Malaysia 0-1
UAE 0-1
Hamed Ehdadi, Iran
Tseng Wen-ting, Taiwan
Rashiem Wright, Jordan
Lin Chih-chieh, Taiwan
Cho Sung-min, Korea