AMMAN (Jordan) - The Semi-Finals stage is set at the FIBA U16 Women’s Asian Championship 2022 Division B after Syria and Samoa win the qualification games.

Syria were the first to advance, claiming a tightly contested 59-46 win over Iran.

The final score was actually Syria’s biggest lead of the game as Iran kept the score close throughout the contest even if they were never able to take the lead. In the end, it was a slow start by Iran in the fourth quarter that allowed Syria to jump ahead and control the momentum of the game to the final buzzer.

Aside from the key contributions of the usual stars Simel Alahmar (13 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals), Aya Almohammad (8 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals), Syria also got great output from Lalia Hasan Agha (14 points, 3 assists, 3 steals) and Elissa Doubal (6 points, 11 rebounds, 4 blocks).

It was a great effort by Iran who were aiming to make it back to the Semi-Finals, especially from Hadiseh Ghesmati Almani, who had 8 points and 24 rebounds.

The last team to make it to the Semi-Finals were Samoa as they edged out Kazakhstan, 54-51.

Key defensive plays by Peata Manunmaleuga and Azaleeah Oloapu halted Kazakhstan’s final attempts to tie the game in the waning seconds, leaving Samoa in celebration as the final buzzer sounded.

Samoa took control of the lead with a massive 18-4 second quarter and even though Kazakhstan came back from down by as much as 13 points to make it a single-digit game, it was Samoa’s victory at the end.

Kira-May Filemu recorded another game of at least 20 points and 20 rebounds (20 points, 21 rebounds) which was highlighted by the last minute three-point dagger to stretch the lead out of Kazakhstan’s reach. Sienna Tutani also had a double-double of her own with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while also adding 4 steals.

For Kazakhstan, it was Anastassiya Knaub who had a big game once again, this time with 13 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 steals.

The results of today’s games place Samoa to face the Philippines again in the first game of the Semi-Finals tomorrow 29 June at 15:45 (GMT +3), while Syria will face Lebanon at 18:00 (GMT +3). This will be the first time of playing in the Semi-Finals of the FIBA U16 Women’s Asian Championship Division B for all of the teams and also with it being the first time for Samoa, Syria, and Lebanon to play in the competition.

In the classification game for 7th place, Indonesia came out on top of the hosts Jordan with a 70-34 win.

Indonesia led for the entire game aside from the first 12 seconds, holding Jordan to only 18.6 percent shooting from the field. They had three players score in double-digits, Erinindita Prias Madafa (13 points), Vaninssa Renata Siregar (12 points) and Syarafina Ayasha Sjahril (11 points).

FIBA