Bahrain in near-upset against China

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s senior men’s national basketball team almost pulled off a massive upset against their heavily favoured counterparts from China last night in their FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifier, played at the Khalifa Sports City Stadium in Isa Town.

But it wasn’t to be as the visiting Chinese delivered in the clutch for a hard-earned 80-67 win in overtime.

The nationals battled back from an early deficit in the game and took a one-point lead with just over a minute to play in regulation.

Then, after the Chinese replied and went back up by two, a Wayne Chism lay-up tied the contest at 64-all with only 23 seconds remaining, sending the game into the extra five-minute session.

There, however, China dominated and they outscored the hosts 16-3 to come away with the victory.

The Bahrainis put in a valiant effort but could not prevent dropping to a 2-8 win-loss record in Group F of this stage of qualification. China, on the other hand, improved to 8-2.

Australia continue to lead the group, followed by the Chinese, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan and last-placed Bahrain.

Chism top scored for the home team last night with 23 points, while also taking down 11 rebounds.

Maitham Jameel added 16 markers and Ahmed Hassan Alderazi chipped in with 11.

For China, Zhelin Wang had 27 points as the game’s leading scorer while Peng Zhou had 12 and Rui Zhao scored 11.

Last night’s result was the second successive loss for Bahrain in this window of games.

They had also bowed to Japan on Friday last week. The Bahrainis are next back on the hardwood in February of next year, when they travel half-way across the globe for their last two qualifiers.

They play Australia on 23 February and then face off with Japan on 26 February in a pair of away fixtures. At the end of this qualifying stage, the top three teams from each group—along with hosts Japan and the Philippines— qualify for next year’s World Cup.