Jordan ends FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers unbeaten

AMMAN — Jordan ended its Group D qualifiers for the 31st FIBA Asia Cup 2025 with an unbeaten record, becoming one of 12 teams to have booked their slots to the Asian event slated for Saudi Arabia from Aug 5-17.

Although Jordan had secured their qualifying spot, this week’s qualifiers were a chance for incoming coach Spaniard Juan Manuel “Piti” Hurtado who replaced Wisam Al Sous, to test the readiness of the lineup and make changes ahead of the FIBA Cup.

Jordan and Saudi Arabia qualified from Group D to the upcoming FIBA Asia Cup with Jordan beating its Saudi guests 78-68 in Amman before playing Iraq in Baghdad, where the squad started off trailing by 19 points before catching up at halftime 55-51.

The third and fourth quarters saw Jordan’s Freddy Ibrahim turn the match around scoring 23 points including 10 in the last quarter. In the absence of star centre Ahmad Duweiri who left to be with his UAE club team, Ibrahim and Dar Tucker combined as they relied on 3 point shots to make a memorable comeback and seal the match.

Saudi Arabia maintained second place after they beat Palestine 93-71 and booked the second qualifying spot, while Iraq will play for a qualifying spot later .

A total of 24 teams played Round 1 qualification matches for the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup in three windows, while also battling for qualifying spots for the 2027 FIBA Basketball World Cup alongside hosts Qatar who automatically advanced. The top two teams of each group moved to the FIBA Asia Cup and the six third-placed teams will now play a qualifying round for the final four places.

Qualified teams so far are Australia and Korea (Group A), New Zealand and Philippines (Group B), China and Japan (Group C), Jordan and Saudi (Group D), Iran and Qatar (Group E), Lebanon, Syria (Group F).

Taipei, Guam, Thailand, Iraq, India and Bahrain will play a qualifying tournament to decide the final four teams to joins the qualifiers to the FIBA Asia Cup.

Jordan, the 2023 Asian Games silver medalist and three-time qualifier to the World Cup, 2010, 2019 and 2023, will be playing the FIBA Asia Cup for the 17th time, with their best position runner-up in 2011.

The team hopes to build on their feats in 2023, when they won a historic first ever team medal — a silver at the Asian Games. In addition, they played at the FIBA World Cup. Alongside the junior men’s team in 1995 and 2025, basketball has been the only Jordanian team to reach a World Cup in a team sport.