BANGKOK (Thailand) - Four teams will duke it out for the 2 remaining tickets to the penultimate stage as the FIBA U18 Women's Asia Cup 2026-Division B Qualification to Semi-Finals roll on Friday at the Nimibutr Stadium.
India and Lebanon booked outright trips to the Semi-Finals by topping Groups A and B, respectively, in sweeping fashion, and they'd surely be monitoring the Final Phase's opening round to determine their opponents.
The young Cedars, for one, will be closely watching the meeting between Indonesia and Samoa at 16:00 local time, with the SABA squad setting their sights on the 18:30 bout featuring Kazakhstan and Thailand.
One-half of the SEABA representatives, the Timnas finished at no. 2 in Group A after bowing to India during the Group Phase's final gameday - a loss that spoiled their bid of claiming a direct ticket to the Semi-Finals.
They will be facing a team that managed to end the preliminaries at 3rd in Group B by pulling off a 60-55 escape against the Cook Islands, which was their first win as well after losing to Kazakhstan and Lebanon.
So, if ever they do pull off an upset against Indonesia, the Samoans - who actually won the Div. B competitions in 2022 to get promoted but has since been relegated - can get a chance for payback versus the WABA crew.
Similar to the Indonesians, Kazakhstan also settled for 2nd in Group B as their aspirations of going 3-0 to head straight into the Semi-Finals got spoiled after absorbing a narrow 66-59 defeat to Lebanon.
So in an attempt to go to where they've been wanting to, the team from CABA will first have to go through the hosts, who caught the last bus to the Qualification to Semi-Finals by keeping Oman winless, 111-20.
The Semi-Finals are scheduled on Saturday, July 18, with the winners duking it out in the Final on the very next night for the right to earn the coveted promotion to Division A of the biennial youth contest's next edition.
Set to raise the knockout stages' curtains, meanwhile, is a Classification 7-8 duel between the Cook Islands and Oman. Click here to see the complete FIBA U18 Women's Asia Cup 2026-Division B schedule.
FIBA