Jordan-A repeats over Gilas, sets up Egypt rematch for King Abdullah Cup

The main team of Jordan have set up a rematch with Egypt for the 10^th King Abdullah Cup, after notching a repeat win over the Philippines 84-74 in the second semifinal Saturday evening (Sunday morning Manila time) at Amman’s Prince Hamzah Sport Hall.

Just 24 hours after the tournament hosts came up victorious in their first meeting at the end of the round-robin phase, the Falcons held their nerve against a game Gilas squad of their former mentor Tab Baldwin as they punched their ticket to the final where the Pharaohs await them once again as they seek revenge to their defeat last July 28.

The defeat relegated the Filipinos to a second meeting with Tunisia in the third-place playoff, with the Carthage Lions could not make their previous win over Egypt count in their semifinal contest.

Jordan’s fearsome frontcourt pair of Ahmad Al-Dwairi (Ahmet Duverioglu) and Cameron Forte showed the way when they scored 19 points apiece while combining for 67% field goal shooting. The Fenerbahce man displayed his well-rounded game as he came just three assists shy of a triple-double after pulling down 16 rebounds for a game-best index rating of 30, and made a killing from the stripe when he hit 9/13 of his free throws.

On the contrary, Ange Kouame was the lone bright spot for Gilas with his game-high 20 points on 8/13 clip as his teammates could only conjure up single figures the rest of the way as it struggled with a hostile crowd that countered the Filipino support in the Jordanian capital in both of those games where it was an almost even split inside the arena.

It was not just their big men that did the damage, with guard Freddy Ibrahim gave the Gilas backcourt fits as he added 17 for Jordan on a 50% clip and came close of a triple-double when he was just two dimes and four boards away from it.

The hot shooting of the Western Asians was on full display, hitting half of their 53 field goal attempts and fired 73% of their free throws as their driving offense gave the Filipinos a lot of headache for the entirety of the contest.

It was not a straightforward win for the hosts as they have to claw back from six down in the early stages of the game, firing in a 15-0 run for a nine-point turnaround in which Gilas had no answer for it as it was forced to play catch-up for the rest of the game.

Although they came to within four in the payoff frame, Gilas could not find a bucket to put the game within a touching distance as they were bogged down by crucial turnovers, including a shot-clock violation that killed their comeback attempt with 2:37 remaining.

The scores

JORDAN-A 84 – Al-Dwairi 19, Forte 19, Ibrahim 17, Abu Hawwas 14, Bzai 9, Al Hamarsheh 3, Abbas 3, Abdeen 0, Hussein 0

PHILIPPINES 74 – Kouame 20, Heading 9, Ravena 8, Ildefonso 8, Ramos 6, Belangel 6, Tamayo 6, Baltazar 5, Go 4, Matt Nieto 2, Suerte 0, Chiu 0

Quarter scores: 28-15, 44-34, 63-56, 84-74
PHOTO: JORDAN BASKETBALL FEDERATION