By Sophie Mosleh
The first game of round two of the International Basketball Competition was between Jordan’s Al-Ahli and Egypt’s Olympic National team, Wednesday night at the Sport City Center, Amman.
Egypt humiliated Jordan 82-55 at full-time and if these younger players play as they did against Al-Ahli – no team can beat them. Egypt’s game sparkled with fast play, control of the ball, and excellent shooting, whereas Jordan played the worst game in the competition yet; slow, without control, and with bad shooting.
This circumstance allowed the younger team to lead for the entire match – from beginning to end. From 14-10 within five minutes of the game to 31-17 in the middle of the first-half, and finally ending the first-half 48-25.
In the second-half, Al-Ahli tried to make the difference in points smaller but Egypt knew what they were doing and took control of the situation, saving their lead and boosting it dramatically to a massive winning 27 point difference at the end of the match.
Yambolgas Prove to be the Tougher Side
The second game of the second round was between Jordan’s Jazira and Bulgaria’s Yambolgas. The Bulgarians truly proved to be the tougher side of the game, ending the match 92-66.
But this difference in points didn’t reflect the true facts of the game. Jazira was fighting for as little scoring difference as possible throughout the entire game and only managed to achieve this a few times; when the score was separated by a tiny margin of three-points.
But Yambolgas, who have professional players, knew how to finalize the game with such high scoring – at first the reading was 22-10, but the first-half ended 43-38, with Yambolgas ahead by only five points.
In the second-half, Jazira entered the match so strongly and they were about to achieve an equal score with the Bulgarians, but Yambolgas changed their plan and started shooting three-pointers. This boosted their already high score, taking it even higher to 60-40 and 80-45, just two minutes before the end. A desperate Jazira then finally surrendered to the winners.
In the first game of the 7-9 rankings, Yugoslavia’s Zastava disgraced Jordan’s Wehdat 58-25 at half-time and 101-48 at full-time.
There will be three matches Thursday night:
Jordan’s Wehdat Vs Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ansar 4 p.m. [ranking 7-9]
Egypt’s Al-Ahly Vs Egypt’s Olympic National team 6:15 p.m. [round two]
Jordan’s Orthodox Club Vs Bulgaria’s Yambolgas 8:30 p.m. [round two]
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
