Jordan’s women’s basketball prepares for FIBA Asia Cup

AMMAN — Jordan’s senior women’s basketball team was drawn in Group B for the Women’s Asia Cup Division B which will be held in Thailand August 13-19. 

It will be the third time for Jordan at the event after they played in 1995 and 2021.

The Kingdom will play Group B alongside Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan and Thailand while Group A includes Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia and Mongolia. 

The top team from each group will automatically move to the semis while the second and third from the groups will play for a spot in the semis from which one team will be promoted to Division A in the 2025 edition.

Jordan is set to host Iran and Egypt in upcoming friendlies after they held a training camp earlier and played Kuwait and Egypt as they prepare for the Asia Cup.

Jordan is now 76th on FIBA rankings, 13th among Asian teams and 3rd among Arab teams after Lebanon (44) and Syria (75).

In 2021, the Kingdom hosted the Asia Cup Divisions A & B finishing second after Lebanon in Division B, marking the first time the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2021 Division A was held in an Arab country. Lebanon was promoted to Division A for the 2023 tournament where it finished 7th with China taking top spot. 

Jordan had earlier taken part in the event 26 years ago in 1995 when the squad first took part in Shizuoka, Japan.

This week, the Kingdom’s U-16 women’s basketball team finished 5th at the FIBA U16 Women’s Asian Championship which concluded in Amman as Jordan hosted Divisions A & B.

The Philippines won Division B top spot and were promoted to Division A. They were followed by Iran, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Jordan, Singapore, Guam and the Maldives.

Australia retained the Division A title while Japan settled for second and New Zealand for third followed by Chinese Taipei, Korea, China, Samoa and Syria. 

The top four teams qualified for the FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup 2024 in Mexico.

It was Jordan’s third time at the event and host of the FIBA U16 Women’s Asian Championship for the second consecutive edition. Last year, Jordan settled for 8th place, while in 2013 they finished 11th. 

Jordan’s U-16 boys team will also play the FIBA U-16 Asian Championship after they last participated in 2009.

In the FIBA U18 Women’s Asian Championship, Jordan settled for 6th place in the event’s latest edition in India. 

The top team in the tournament, Australia, moved to Division A. Jordan finished 8th in 1996, hosted the event in 2014 finishing 11th and were 6th in 2022.