Jordan makes it to Women’s Asia Cup semis after an absence of 26 years

AMMAN — It’s down to the final four, and Jordan has a shot at the top spot.

On Friday, the hosts will play the semis of the FIBA Women's Asia Cup 2021 (Division B) — and are one win away from the final match.

The team's performance has recharged the game for fans and former players. Now, all hope is that the squad, who beat Indonesia and Kazakhstan to top Group B on their way to the semis can repeat their win over Kazakhstan in Friday's semifinal and advance to play the winner of the Lebanon versus Indonesia semifinal in the tournament's title match on Saturday. 

"I'm very proud of our squad. We not only got lucky with our pro player who perfectly fits the team, but the players are very determined and worked on resolving all gaps during our training camp," Jordan's coach Faisal Nsour told The Jordan Times.

Most observers initially thought Jordan would finish in 5-6th position. Now the team is favoured to win their rematch against Kazakhstan in the semifinal and advance to meet Lebanon, playing in their 5th Women's Asia Cup.

Jordan, led by Maria Al Hinn, Zara Najjar, Rasha Abdo and Dana Fadda have combined with the WNBA Washington Mystics player Natasha Emily Cloud to give fans a memorable tournament. Nsour noted Cloud's performance as "a team player who knows what needs to be done, to score, defend and win."

"Lebanon have the history and competitive experience, but we have the zeal and home advantage. We hope to go further and be a constant competitor in the FIBA Women's Asia Cup," he added.

In the first stage, the top team from each group automatically moved to the semis : Jordan topped Group B after the two wins 76-64 over Indonesia and 72-51 over Kazakhstan and while Lebanon, topped Group A after overcoming Iran 66-64 and Syria 83-63. 

The second and third in each group played a knockout round: Kazakhstan beat Syria 87-69 while Indonesia beat Iran 76-68. The winners advanced to play the group leaders in the semis (Indonesia take on Lebanon at 4pm and Jordan versus Kazakhstan at 7pm). The losers, Iran and Syria, will play for 5-6 spots at 1pm on Friday.

The top team in the tournament will be promoted to Division A. Missing the event are Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Thailand and Singapore.

Jordan is back at the competition after an absence of 26 years when the squad took part in Shizuoka, Japan, in 1995, in circumstances that are very different from this day. The players then actually fundraised themselves with team managers to cover the trip's expenses and that historic participation was the Kingdom's first ever Asian appearance for a women's sports team. Jordan then won one match beating Indonesia 58-55, and lost to Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Malaysia to finish 11th.

Asian basketball teams are classified to two divisions: FIBA Women's Asia Cup (Division A) was recently held in Amman with the top four teams qualifying to the 2022 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup in Australia. A major tournament with leading teams from the continent participating, the tournament marked the first time the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2021 Division A is held in an Arab country.

Reigning titleholders Japan made it past China in the final of the 29th edition of the tournament. Australia scored a major upset over South Korea in the battle for third place. New Zealand took 5th spot after beating Chinese Taipei and the Philippines secured 7th spot after narrowly overcoming India. The latter was relegated to Division B of the 2023 FIBA Asia Cup after putting up a big fight for their spot in Division A.

The same eight teams from the last Division A edition had qualified to this years' tournament, listed by their final position. Division B was not held in 2019. 

The FIBA Women's Asia Cup is an international basketball tournament which takes place every two years for national teams from FIBA Asia region. It was known as the Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Championship until 2001, and the FIBA Asia Women's Championship until 2015. Japan are Division A titleholders and five-time winners, South Korea 12 time winners, China 11 time winners.

Among Arab teams, Division B saw Syria play in 1986 (finishing 9th), Jordan in 1995 (finishing 11th) and Lebanon playing three times in Division B: 2001 (finishing 13th), 2009 (finishing 8th), 2017 (finishing 11th) and once in Division A in 2011 (finishing 5th out of six teams competing).

In addition to the Women’s Asia Cup Divisions A & B, Jordan will again host the FIBA Asia U-18 Championship for Women in 2022, which qualifies the winners to the FIBA U-19 Women's Basketball World Cup. Jordan took part in FIBA Asia U-18 in 1996 and finished 8th, and hosted the event in 2014 and finished 11th. In the FIBA Asia U-16 Championship for Women, Jordan played in 2013 and finished 11th.

In men's events, Jordan qualified to the FIBA Asia Cup after an unbeaten streak in qualifiers. The FIBA Asia Cup 2021 will be played in Jakarta, Indonesia, in July 2022, right after the window of the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asia qualifiers.

Jordan's best showing at the FIBA Asia Cup (previously named FIBA Asia Championship) was third in 2009 and runner-up in 2011 when they reached the final for the first time in the country's history, but lost the chance of qualifying to the 2012 Olympic Games after losing the final 70-69 to China. Jordan then played the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament, but lost to Puerto Rico and Greece and was eliminated. 

On the world scene, Jordan previously reached the FIBA Basketball World Cup — the world's premier basketball competition twice — in 2010 and 2019. The basketball squad was the first and only Jordanian team to actually reach a World Cup in a team sport alongside the junior men's team in 1995.