The Lebanese under-18 team lost its first game in the 10th West Asian basketball championship yesterday against its Iranian counterpart with a score of 92 to 83. The championship will take place in Yemen from July 30 to August 3. Meanwhile, in another game, the Yemen won against Jordan with a score of 95 to 88.

A defeat, indeed, but a defeat that seems to ravish the Lebanese coach Rizkallah Zaloum who assured to our colleagues in Al-Akhbar daily that he is willing to end in the third place in the competition for strategic reasons: “Frankly, we don’t want to win at all, for this would place Lebanon in a high-level group during the next Asian championship and complicate our task in terms of the qualification to the 2009 under-19 World Cup that will take place in New Zealand. “We and the Syrians are competing in order to be placed in a good group. Therefore, the last podium walk will fully satisfy us”.
It is worth noting that this West Asian Championship is played back and forth and that Lebanon finished in the third place (after Syria, 2nd, and Iran, 1st) in the phase of last summer. The teams will be classified according to the total number of back and forth points.

Here is the Lebanese list of players:

Ralph Akl (178cm)- (Champville High School), Joey Zalaoum (182cm)- (Antranik), Mike Nar (182cm)- (Club Sagesse), Mohamad Jaloul (191cm)- (Amjad High School et Riyadi Beyrouth), Khalil Aoun (192cm)- (Champville High School), Jad Kabara (188cm) - Mouttahed Tripoli), Ahmad Ibrahim (196cm)- ( patterson High School-USA), Vincent khoury 198cm- (Champville H.S), Hayk gyokchyan 206cm- (Conwell Egans HS- USA), Hassan Maatouk 200cm- (hoops club), Jad Mbarak 206 cm- (Aintoura HS), Elie haber 218 cm- (Amjad HS).

And the complete game calendar:
30/ 07 Lebanon - Iran 83--92
Yemen - Jordan 95--88

31/07 Syria - Yemen
Lebanon - Jordan

01/08 Iran - Jordan
Lebanon - Syria

02/08 Yemen - Lebanon
Syria - Iran

03/ 08 Iran - Yemen
Jordan – Syria