JEDDAH, 27 July 2005 — Jordan and Morocco booked their places in the semifinal from Group A and Group B with decisive victories last night in the 16th Arab Basketball Championship at the General Presidency of Youth Welfare hall here.
Jordan followed unbeaten Algeria to the final four by beating Egypt 74-64, while Morocco beat hosts Saudi Arabia 74-64.
In the semifinal today, Algeria take on the other Group B qualifiers Tunisia at 4:15 p.m. Morocco clash with Jordan at 6:15 p.m. in the second semifinal. The winners will play for the championship and the losers for third and fourth tomorrow.
Egypt started the game playing great defense and led at the turn 34-25, but then Jordan got 25 points in the third period and 24 in the fourth against the 12 and 18 from their rival in the same period to claim victory.
Jordan shot 51 % from the floor to Egypt’s 50%. They had the edge in in rebounds 38-22.M. Al Awadi shot 20 points for Jordan and A. Adeis added 17.
Osama with 17 and H. Taman with 11 points were the leading scorers for Egypt.
Morocco jumped out to 10-2 lead in the first quarter. Saudi Arabia fought back to get within two 2 points but finished the first half down by 10 points at 38-28.
Morocco scored layup after layup to pull away and the Saudi defense did not show up last night. Morocco shot 63% from the floor and the Kingdom 38%. G. Almesbahi shot 25 points to lead a balanced Morocco attack. M. Almetlabi added 12.
