Ammon News - By Aline Bannayan

AMMAN (Jordan Times)- Zain lost the chance to be crowned champions of the Asian Basketball Confederation’s (ABC) 20th FIBA Asia Champions Cup on Wednesday when they lost to Iran’s Mahram 78-68 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Zain led 22-19 in the first quarter and held it at 30-23, but Mahram ended with a 35-33 halftime lead. Both teams alternated the lead and tied 44-44 in a highly-defensive match before the Iranian team took the lead in the third quarter 51-47 and 53-49.

Zain’s Zaid Abbas scored a three pointer to narrow the gap to 53-52, but Mahram took advantage of the foul trouble of Ayman Dueis and Lett Ontario to lead 57-54 and 61-56.

Mahram scored easily as Zain could not catch up in the final three minutes in which Dueis carried his team and scored over 19 points.

Zain had an impressive unbeaten first round and moved to the quarters where they beat South Korea’s Sangmoo Army Club 89-70 to reach the semis, where Zain beat Qatar’s Arabi 113-57 while West Asian champs Mahram overcame Lebanon’s Riyadi 109-80. Riyadi beat Arabi 94-81 in the third place match.

Zain had qualified to the Champions Cup after finishing runner-up to Mahram at the West Asia Championship in Amman.

They are the only Jordanian team to have won the title when they captured the 17th Champions Cup in 2006.

It was the fourth time for Zain at the Champions Cup. In 2005, they also finished runner-up to Qatar’s Rayyan, before winning in 2006 and exiting the quarter-finals in 2008.

Although they won the Jordanian league for the sixth time, Zain have been unable to win regional titles this year after they also conceded their Arab Clubs Championship crown to Lebanon’s Riyadi.

East Asian teams had a grip on the Champions Cup title until 1999 when Lebanon’s Sagesse (Hikmeh) won and went on to hold the title for a record 3 times. From then on, teams from Arab countries won the title until Iran’s Saba Battery won in 2007 and 2008. Both Saba Battery, as well as Qatar’s Rayyan, who won twice each are missing the event.

Jordanian teams first took part in the Champions Cup in 1988 when Orthodoxi competed in Jakarta and finished fifth. Ahli took part in 1995 in Malaysia and finished fourth, Orthodoxi took part in 1996 and 1999 finishing sixth both times.


Photo: Mahdi Kamrany of Iran's Mahram celebrates while holding the trophy after beating Zain during their FIBA Asia Champions Cup final basketball game in Jakarta on Wednesday (Reuters photo)