Taiwan’s national basketball squad were on Monday knocked out of the FIBA Asia Cup in an agonizing one-point buzzer-beater loss to Jordan in at Istora Stadium in Jakarta.
Taiwan gave up a lead of 9 points with just over a minute left to fall 97-96 to Jordan in their quarter-finals qualifier.
Despite having led for most of the game, at one point by as much as 11 points, Taiwan ran out of steam in the third quarter, allowing Jordan to go on a 26-20 run.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Taiwan then managed to gain a nine-point lead, taking the total to 91-82, after guard Chen Ying-chun sank a jump shot with little over 1 minute left in the game.
However, chaos erupted with 55 seconds left in the game. Taiwan center William Artino fouled for a fifth time while trying to defend against Jordanian sharpshooter Freddy Ibrahim.
Ibrahim went on to score 9 of his 19 points, including the game-winning three-point buzzer-beater, sending Jordan to their second consecutive Asian Cup quarter-final and shattering Taiwan’s dreams of making it to their first quarter-final in the regional championship since 2013.
Taiwan head coach Charles Parker said his team “played their hearts out.”
“I have nothing negative to say about our team, nothing negative to say about Jordan. I think it was an evenly matched game and it came down to an incredible shot,” Parker said.
Artino, Taiwan’s 2.11m-tall naturalized US-born center, said he deserved a lot of the blame for the loss.
“I have to figure out a way to continue to stay in the game and not take myself out of the game and make free throws. And I feel like I let down my team and I feel like I let down a whole nation, so I apologize and I’ll continue to work better at being more controlled and on my free throws as well,” said Artino, who shot 3-8 from the free-throw line.
Jordan shooting guard Dar Tucker led all scorers with 36 points, shooting 66.7 percent from the floor, while Chen led the Taiwan team with 20 points.
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