JEDDAH, 23 July 2005 — Defending champions Egypt sent Sudan packing with a 127-54 blowout victory yesterday in the 16th Arab Basketball Championship at the General Presidency of Youth Welfare hall here.
Pre-tournament favorites Jordan scored a decisive 88-62 victory over Saudi Arabia, handing the hosts their first defeat in three games in the tournament.
Egypt shot 74 percent from the field, Sudan a mere 37 percent, as they suffered their second straight defeat. First quarter score was 39-16 for Egypt who had the game practically in the bag in the first five minutes.
The first period action in the Saudi-Jordan match saw the lead change hands three times with three ties. Jordan finished the first period with only a 5-point lead at 26-21.
Jordan committed 13 fouls in 1st quarter. Their bench players kept the lead.
From a halftime score of 45-39 Jordan took the fight out of the Saudis with a great transition game. The Jordanians dominated the shaded area grabbing 48 rebounds including offensive boards that resulted in second chance baskets.
Ayman Daes scored a game-high 16 points for Jordan who also had four other players hitting double digits. Fayez Al Haji was the top scorer for Saudi Arabia with 15 points.
Thursday night’s third game was the best of the three. First quarter action produced four lead changes with Tunisia leading Palestine by 6 points at the end of the quarter 25-19. Both teams added 19 points each to make it Tunisia 44 Palestine 38 at halftime. In the third period Tunisia added four points to their lead and blew the game wide open in the fourth scoring 31 points in the period against only seven for Palestine.
The total was Tunisia 101 with four players scoring double digits, and Palestine 67 with four bagging double digits. Rebounding was close: Palestine 33 versus 31 for Tunisia. However, field goal percentage made the difference with Tunisia converting 58.3% against only 55% for Palestine. Algeria beat Tunisia 101-70 in the third game yesterday.
Pistons Introduce Saunders as Coach
AP adds: Flip Saunders was introduced as the new coach of the Detroit Pistons on Thursday, replacing Hall of Famer Larry Brown and taking over a team that has made two straight appearances in the NBA Finals.
Saunders, who was fired in February after 912 seasons as the coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves, says he knows there is an expectation to win in Detroit.
