AMMAN (Jordan) - Philippines claim big win to start their FIBA U16 Women’s Asian Championship 2022 campaign along with Syria and Lebanon, while Iran upset the hosts.

The competition in Division B started with game between Syria and Samoa that swung back and forth with Syria winning 75-63.

Samoa actually went up ahead by as much as 7 points in the first half, but fell prey to an 11-0 run by Syria which allowed their opponents back in the game. A few more scoring draughts later in the third and fourth quarters left Syria running away with the victory.

Aya Almohammad was the top performer for Syria as she recorded a double-double of 19 points and 10 rebounds, while also putting up 5 assists and 5 steals in the process.

Meanwhile, Samoa’s Kira-May Filemu also had a big game of 24 points, 15 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 4 blocks, but it wasn’t enough.

The Philippines claimed the biggest win of the day in Division B, 104-68 by finishing strong against Indonesia.

The game was tightly contested in the first half as both teams exchanged the lead 5 times. The Philippines led by only 6 points going into the halftime break. In the second half, the Philippines ended up outscoring Indonesia, 59-19, as they cruise along to the victory.

Gabriella Ramos had one of the best line of production so far in the competition with 27 points, 20 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 4 blocks on 11-20 shooting from the field. This was good enough for an efficiency rating of 46, by far the best in the competition so far.

For Indonesia, it was Angelica Jennifer Candra who had 16 points and 13 rebounds.

The third Division B game was between Iran and hosts Jordan, ending up in a massive swing of points which resulted in a 68-41 win for visiting team.

Jordan had built up a lead of as big as 10 points early in the second quarter, but would start struggling to find the bottom of the net from there. Since building up their biggest lead of 10 points, Jordan scored only 3 points until the halftime buzzer and only 12 points in the entire second half.

Rebounding was key for Iran and Hadiseh Ghesmati Almani put on a rebounding performance to remember with 23 in total while also scoring 8 points and getting 4 steals.

The first gameday of the U16 Women’s Asian Championship 2022 ended with Lebanon leading nearly from start to finish against Kazakhstan, en route to a 59-47 win.

Lebanon had two double-double scorers, led by Christina Annan who had 16 points on 7-13 shooting from the field. Meanwhile Eliza Khoury led the team in assists with 6 while also scoring 13 points.

The games tomorrow in Division B starts with Samao going up against Indonesia at 13:30 (GMT +3). The Philippines will attempt to remain undefeated as they go up against Syria at 15:45 (GMT +3). Hosts Jordan will be looking for their first win when they go up against Kazakhstan at 18:00 (GMT+3). The last game will then be at 20:15 GMT +3 between Lebanon and Iran.

FIBA