Cedars make it 7 straight Qualifiers wins

BEIRUT (Lebanon) - Lebanon continue their impressive run through the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Asian Qualifiers with their seventh consecutive win.

The 103-74 win came at the expense of India, who remain winless in the Asian Qualifiers.

India kept the game close in the first quarter with neither team leading by more than 4 points until the final minute. Once Lebanon broke out to an 8-0 run to get their first double-digit lead in the game, they kept their foot on the pedal until the final buzzer.

Ali Haidar lived up his moniker as the “Beast” with 16 points in the first quarter before ending up with a total of 27. He’d also collect 8 rebounds and 3 steals for the victors.

Jad Khalil also had a big game with 15 points and 9 assists. Other double-digit scorers include Jonathan Arledge (15 points, 5 rebounds) and Jean Marc Jarrouj (18 points).

Muin Bek Hafeez had a solid game for India with 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists for India.

Game Hero: Ali Haidar played with a burning passion in this game, leading to his early burst of scoring as noted above. This would also be Haidar’s most points scored in an Asian Qualifiers game, breaking his previous high of 26 which he scored against China in 2018.

Stats don’t lie: It was an admirable effort from India in this away game against Lebanon and all that the youngsters can do is learn from his loss. They were able to make a fair number of shots that they took (50 percent field-goal shooting) but they took 31 less field goal attempts than Lebanon in this game. A key factor to that difference is that India had turned the ball over a whopping 28 times compared to Lebanon’s 13 turnovers, giving that many more opportunities for the Cedars to score.

FIBA