Bahrainis bow to Kiwis in U16 Asian basketball

TDT | Manama    

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s youth national basketball team signed off from the FIBA Asia U16 Championship 2023 in Doha yesterday with a heavy 43-117 loss to New Zealand.

The Bahrainis trailed by as many as the final margin of 74 points as they were overmatched by their opponents in their third successive loss.

The result gave the nationals a winless record in three Group C outings in the competition’s preliminary round.

The Kiwis finished as group winners and moved directly to the quarter-finals, while Jordan and South Korea came second and third, respectively, to march through to the play-offs.

The Jordanians beat the Koreans 62-59 in yesterday’s other Group C fixture. In Bahrain’s loss, they fell behind 14-27 after the first quarter and then faced a 24-53 deficit at the half.

A lopsided third in which they scored just seven points while giving up 31 put them in a daunting 31- 84 hole heading into the final canto.

There, New Zealand did not let up en route to closing out their massive 74-point win. Bahrain’s Ali Altoq scored 13 points to lead the nationals while Hasan Jameela added 10.

Troy Plumtree had 22 for the Kiwis, while Lachlan Crate chipped in with 20.