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29th August 2008
Ibrahim’s defiance clinches the issue for Lebanon
TEHRAN (FIBA Asia U18 Championship for Junior Men): This is one defiance Lebanon coach Rizkallah Zaloum won’t certainly complain about, as his side staged a superb fourth quarter surge to beat Philippines 87-84 in a Group C preliminary round game on Thursday.
Ahmad Ibrahim played all of the forty minutes of the game and even scored six times from behind the arc.
But the most important strike came with less than four seconds left in the game.
Much against his coach’s instructions – which were to drive in the lane – Ibrahim opted to take an attempt from behind the arc. And fortunately for him, and to the glee of his bench, that attempt found success.
Lebanon, bronze medalists at the last edition at Urumqi, thus emerged victorious and are almost assured of a place in the top rung of the Quarterfinal round.
“They (Philippines) were under foul penalty. So I instructed my players to go into the paint. I knew they wouldn’t touch us because of the free-throws,” Zaloum said.
“Everything in the play went according to plan, only that he (Ibrahim) chose to shoot from outside instead of driving in,” he added.
“Sometimes not listening to the coach helps,” he chuckled.
Ibrahim had earlier shouldered the burden of his side’s scoring in the first quarter scoring 13 points, as Lebanon strove to keep pace with Philippines.
Philippines, who had won after allowing Chinese Taipei to bounce back before winning in second Overtime on Wednesday seemed to have learnt their lessons.
The former six-time champions kept a small, but steady, lead throughout till the start of the fourth quarter.
Trailing 61-66, at the start of the fourth quarter, Lebanon ran a 13-3 spree that brought back the confidence in their trait.
Neither managed anything more than a two-point lead after that and at 84-84, with about twenty seconds left, Philippines’ Mathew Wright in his anxiety to score, committed a charge.
Lebanon played the ball into Ibrahim, who swerved on top the arc before unleashing the match winner.
Maikal El Nar led the scoring for Lebanon with a game-high 32 points.
Ryan Garcia topped the scoring for Philippines with 28 points.
Scores
Lebanon 87 (Mikael El Nar 32, Ahmad Ibrahim 24) bt Philippines 84 (Ryan Garcia 28). Quarterwise Scores: 21-22, 49-45, 61-66.
S Mageshwaran
FIBA Asia
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In the other game of the group, Taiwan beat the UAE 80 to 54. | 
