LIB / QAT – Solid fourth quarter gives Lebanon victory

TIANJIN (FIBA Asia Championship) - Lebanon and Qatar fought a protracted battle right through their Group F eight-final round game on Monday before the former played a solid fourth quarter to eke out a 73-63 win.

Lebanon thus improved their win-loss record to 2-1, while Qatar slumped to 1-2.

That the teams were tied at 51 going into the final quarter reflected the evenness of the exchanges of encounter.

Lebanon’s overall ability especially in three-pointers helped them win the game.

Omar El Turk fired in back-to-back three-pointers to open Lebanon’s scoring in the fourth quarter.

Fadi El Khatib and Jackson Vroman combined to a nicety with the latter capping a fast breakaway to split the successes in three-pointers from Mat Freije and Rony Fahed.

Lebanon, thus forged ahead 65-59 – as Qatar were confined to scoring in twos – in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, and grimly hung on

Ironically, Qatar had carried a better three-pointer record – 50% (4/8) as against Lebanon’s 31% (5/16) – in the first three quarters.

And in the fourth quarter Lebanon overshadowed their rivals finding the mark on four of the nine occasions during this time. Qatar converted none of their six three-pointer attempts in the fourth quarter.

With most of the other columns remaining close, that was the one factor that helped twice silver medalists Lebanon prevail over the 2005 FIBA Asia Championsip bronze medalists.

“That was the only space to create we could think of,” said Lebanon coach Dragan Raca of the successes with the three-pointers.

“We they would double-team Jackson if he moved inside. And therefore we asked Omar to open up the game with those three-pointers. But more than the planning those shots met with success, thankfully,” Raca added.

Mat Freije led the scoring for the game with 15 points, five of them in the fourth quarter.

Fadi El Khatib shot four points in the final ten minutes to finish with 13.

Saad Ali was the leading scorer for Qatar with 14 points, all of them coming in the first three quarters.


S Mageshwaran
FIBA Asia

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