Freddy beats the buzzer, Jordan go to Quarter-Finals with China

JAKARTA (Indonesia) – Jordan crush Chinese Taipei’s hearts, while China crush Indonesia’s Quarter-Finals and World Cup 2023 dreams in a massive victory.

China started the day off looking to be aggressive and they succeeded in doing so, finishing the game with a 108-58 win. The 16-time Asia Cup champions led in the first quarter 29-11 and built up the lead to as big as 55 points.

All of China’s players got in on the action, as the 12 players not only saw playing time but got on the scoreboard in the big win. Leading the way in scoring was once again Gu Quan who had 23 points. Other standouts include Zhao Rui (13 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists) and Zhou Qi (13 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals, and 1 block).

China proceed to the Quarter-Finals with this win and will face Lebanon in the next round.

It was a tight game from the start and it ended as close as possible between Jordan and Chinese Taipei, with the former team advancing to the Quarter-Finals on a 97-96 win.

Chinese Taipei had led for most of the game, building up their lead to as much as 11 points. They had even lost the lead late in the third quarter on a potential momentum swinging play where Ahmad Al Dwairi blocked a layup attempt by Will Artino, which turned into a quick layup on the other end by Amin Abu Hawwas.

Chinese Taipei eventually got the lead back before the start of the fourth quarter on a gutsy three-pointer by Chen Ying-Chun.

The last quarter of the game was chaos – specifically the last minute where Chinese Taipei were up by 9 points with just under one minute left, 91-82. In that last minute, Freddy Ibrahim scored 9 of his 19 points, including the game-winning buzzer-beater to break Chinese Taipei’s hearts. The clutch shot certainly deserves its glory, but should not overshadow the massive effort from Dar Tucker who scored 36 points and grabbed 9 rebounds. Ahmad Al Dwairi had a spectacular game as well with 20 points, 15 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 blocks.

Jordan make it to their second consecutive Quarter-Finals with the win, and in the process, shattering the dreams of Chinese Taipei making it to their first Quarter-Finals since the storied Asia Cup 2013 team.

This sets up a clash between West Asian giants, Iran and Jordan in the next stage.

They said:

“We don’t want to be disappointed now. We want to continue our program. We want to continue our hard work.”- Milos Pejic, Indonesia Head Coach

“It was an evenly matched game that came down to the final shot.” – Charlie Parker, Chinese Taipei Head Coach

“We didn’t give up. We were down by 8 in the final minute but we didn’t give up.” – Wesam Alsous, Jordan Head Coach