Basketball – Lebanon tops group D after easy win against Bahrain

3 days after claiming an unconvincing win against Iraq, Lebanon bounced back in style on Monday night, comfortably beating Bahrain with a final score of 116-73, on a night during which the players didn’t know how to miss.

Once again, half-empty stands couldn’t stop the national team from giving their absolute best, finding their range and the chemistry they missed on Friday, to claim an easy win against the #113 team in the world, ranked 34 places below Iraq, and 58 below us.

Lebanon’s upcoming stars dazzled from the 3-point line in particular, scoring a total of 19/27 shots (70.4%), with Elie Chamoun, the game’s top scorer, hitting 6/7, and Karim Zeinoun 5/5.

Captain Elie Rustom was among only 2 players, alongside Georges El Beyrouty, not to actively take part in the match, giving the chance to those who could not play or score on Friday, to do so tonight.

Ali Mansour was particularly impressive, cumulating 15 points in barely 8:38 minutes.

With this win, and with India scoring a surprise win against Iraq, Lebanon tops group D and moves comfortably towards qualifying for the FIBA Asia Cup 2021. But let’s not rest on our laurels. The road is long, and no matter how many matches and chances we still have left to qualify, recent history has taught us to wait till the final whistle is blown, before celebrating. Rendez-vous in November 2020 for Window 2.