BAHRAIN beat Saudi Arabia 89-74 yesterday in Damascus, Syria, in their first game of the 2024 FIBA Men’s Pre-Qualifying Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Asia to get their campaign off to a perfect start, writes ADNAN SIPRA.
The kingdom’s team raced to a 22-17 lead at the end of the first quarter but then saw the Saudis rally in the second to come within three points with the scoreboard reading 41-38 at half time.
Spurred on by American-Bahraini star Devon Dwayne Chism – who eventually top-scored for his side with 24 points, three rebounds and two assists – Bahrain found their rhythm again in the third quarter, adding 28 points to the 18 managed by their opponents to enter the fourth and final quarter, sitting on a comfortable 13-point lead at 69-56.
The Saudis were under great pressure now but, somehow, they still managed to test the Bahraini defence, scoring another 18 points while the kingdom’s men managed 20. However, Bahrain’s strong showing in the third quarter meant that the Saudis, try as they might, were never in the hunt in the final ten minutes.
Bahrain will now take on Kazakhstan today in their second match.
Indonesia, India and hosts Syria are the other three sides in the six-team tournament which is one of five such competitions taking place around the world, open to 40 countries that did not qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023. The others are the pre-qualifying tournaments in Africa, the Americas and Europe, which has two separate competitions for 16 teams.
The winning team will head to the 2024 FIBA Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments, which will be held next July, shortly before the start of the Paris Olympics.
Since the basketball competition in the Olympics is a 12-team affair, the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup will already have produced seven directly qualified teams for the event with France automatically qualifying as hosts.
Which teams will fill the remaining four slots will be decided by the four Olympic qualifying tournaments in which 24 teams will participate. The winner of each tournament will qualify for the Paris Olympics.
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