Lebanon knocked out of Asian Cup after loss to New Zealand

Lebanon's national basketball team was knocked out of the Asian Cup quarterfinals by a strong performance by New Zealand, who fairly calmly clawed back a 20-point lead they had lost in the first quarter.

Ali Mansour and Youssef Khayat's teammates left with their heads held high, having some regrets in a match in which they held their own before New Zealand turned the situation around in the last quarter, with a total of 90 points against 86.

The match, organized by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), took place at 7 p.m. (Lebanese time) at the King Abdullah Sports Complex, north of Jeddah.

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The Lebanese basketball players started the match strong, reaching more than a 20-point deficit during the first quarter (32-12). In the second quarter, the Tall Blacks emerged to make up some of their deficit, but were unable to break their opponents' resistance (45-30). A solid New Zealand then came back to within six points of Lebanon at the end of the third quarter.

The final period was a thrilling one, with Lebanon maintaining a lead that oscillated between five and 10 points for several minutes before the New Zealanders came back to level (72-72), then moved five points ahead again with less than two minutes to go. Lebanon did not give up, coming back to within four, then three points in the final moments, without reversing the trend.

Lebanon is currently ranked 29th in the FIBA rankings, seven places lower than its opponent today. On Tuesday, the Lebanese national basketball team defeated Japan in the quarterfinals by 23 points (97-73).

New Zealand has reached the semi-finals of the Asian Cup for the third consecutive time in as many years, after dominating the group stage with an average score difference of 23.3 points per game, according to FIBA statistics.

The situation was more complicated for the Lebanese, who had suffered two consecutive defeats against Australia (80-93) and then South Korea (86-97), after defeating Qatar by a very narrow margin (84-80). This victory, however, allowed them to face Japan in a play-off and still reach the quarter-finals.