BEIRUT (FIBA Asia Cup 2021) – The year 2018 is coming to a close with the vacant spots for the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualifiers filled in after the completion of the Pre-Qualifying rounds. The Western Region Pre-Qualifier was held from 11-15 September in Manama, Bahrain while the Eastern Region Pre-Qualifier took place at Nonthaburi, Thailand from 26 November to December 1.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Western Region) and Guam (Eastern Region) were able to go undefeated in their Pre-Qualifier runs, winning all matches in double-digit fashion.

Guam were led by well-known stars in the professional ranks like Earnest Ross and Tai Wesley in their dominating run. Their physical presence surely gave them an advantage on the boards (53.7 RPG to lead Pre-Qualifiers) and also excelled in putting up points in a hurry with 10.3 three-pointers made per game.

While Saudi Arabia did not possess the star power of Guam, they ran through their opposition with a well-balanced and strong team led by Khalid Abdel Gabar. Not only did they lead all teams in the Pre-Qualifiers in points (96.0 PPG), they also did it at a highly efficient rate of 47.9 FG% which also led all teams.

Palestine were led by arguably the best player in the Pre-Qualifiers, Sani Sakakini, who recorded an outrageous 28.5 points, 17.0 rebounds, and 4.5 assists. Along with his twin brother Salim Sakakini, Mark Hill, and Jamal Abushamala, Palestine won 3 of their 4 contests to advance to the qualifiers out of the Western Region.

Another team led by an outstanding star performer was Thailand who had Moses Morgan putting up 20.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.8 threes per contest. It wasn’t all about Morgan for Thailand, who also got a promising outing from Chanatip Jakrawan as well. The two formed one of the better frontlines in the Pre-Qualifiers and got Thailand to finish 4^th in rebounds and 1^st in blocks per game.

Bahrain (33.3%) and Indonesia (32.7%) rode their sharpshooting towards the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualifiers, finishing 1^st and 2^nd, respectively, in three-point shooting accuracy.

More importantly for Bahrain, it was their crisp ball movement which saw them average the most assists per game among all teams with 25.0 APG. Hussian Altawash controlled the game for Bahrain, leading all players with 7.3 assists and turned the ball over only 5 times in 4 games.

For Indonesia, star guard Andakara Prastawa’s shooting saved them time and again during the tournament, helping him end up as the team’s leading scorer with 14.0 PPG. He’s also in the running for the Eastern Region Pre-Qualifier Fan’s Favorite player as well!

The Fan’s Favorite from the Western Region Pre-Qualifers was Sri Lanka’s Praneeth Udumalagala who was everything for his team, putting up 17.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 2.5 steals. Sri Lanka were able to seal the final ticket to the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers with a slight win over Bangledash and they will need a whole lot more from Udumalagala in the next round.

Rounding out the FIBA Asia Cup Qualifiers cast is Malaysia who picked up two quality wins against Indonesia and Singapore to get that golden ticket. The young core of Wong Yi Hou, Ting Chun Hong, and Teo Kok Hou makes them an interesting team to look down the road.

The qualified teams of the Western Region (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Bahrain, Sri Lanka) and Eastern Region (Guam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand) will not wait to join the 16 Division A teams to complete the 24 teams to play at the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualifiers which will start play after the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup.

FIBA