HAMBURG (FIBA U17 World Championship) – Playing a game for eleventh place in the U17 World Championship does not mean that the teams involved don't give it one hundred percent.

Of course they do, because nobody wants to come in last. Exactly that was the case in the matchup between Korea and Egypt – both with six consecutive losses under their belts – that was hard-fought, intense, exciting and emotional throughout the 40 minutes. It preciously displayed each team's qualities and strengths, which have been overshadowed by results over the past week.

Egypt hustled hard on rebounds and attacked the rim, while Korea was in search of their hot-handed perimeter shooters.

Korea went 8-of-17 from beyond the arc in the first half, creating a 13 point gap (49-36, 20min). But Egypt struck back, led by forward Ahmed Hamdi (21 points , 17 rebounds), playing off of several asian turnovers to tie the game 79-79 at the 4:00 mark of the fourth period.

A minute or so later Hamdi missed on 1-of-2 free throws to go (87-86). Egypt's Omar Mohammad scored on a running layer in traffic to take the lead (87-88), before Jang Moonho missed a couple of free-throws. Korea's coach Kim Seung Hwan called for time with 32.6 seconds left, drawing up the final play.

An open triple would not drop, as Egypt's players kissed the floor in celebrating the eleventh place of the inaugural FIBA U17 World Championship.

Quotes

Kim Seung Hwan, Korea head coach: “First of all I would like to thank Egypt for a good game. We struggled on defense in the second half. We lost every single game so of course there are some lessons to be learned.“

Hesham Aboserea, Egypt head coach: “Korea payed a good game, so I want to congratulate them on that. We had problems going into the game, but were able to bounce back through defense in the third and fourth quarter. I would like to thank Omar Yasser who I think was the reason we won today, collecting so many defensive rebounds, which allowed others to score for us. We are grateful for this win and the eleventh place.“

Lee Dong Yeop, Korea number 11: “It is disappointing we had so many shooting mistakes. We shot very badly today.”

Omar Yasser, Egypt number 12: “They (Korea) scored a lot of three-pointers, but we concentrated well from the second to the fourth quarter. We played really good defense and it is good to get a first win.”


FIBA / JB