Lebanon Beat South Korea to Close In on the 2027 Basketball World Cup

Lebanon's men's basketball team delivered a statement performance, overpowering South Korea 93-74 in the opening game of the "fourth window" of the FIBA Asian qualifiers for the men's World Cup. The game was played on Thursday evening at the Nohad Nawfal Sports Complex in Zouk Mikael, in the sixth group, which alongside Lebanon features China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

With this result, their sixth win in the qualifiers, the Cedars strengthened their grip on top of the sixth group and moved an important step closer to booking a place at the World Cup finals, set for Qatar in 2027. The match drew a big crowd of 8,000, led by President of the Republic General Joseph Aoun and Minister of Youth and Sports Dr. Nora Bayrakdarian, alongside FIBA Asia First Vice-President and Lebanese Basketball Federation President Akram Halabi, FIBA Asia Secretary General Hagop Khatcharian, and a host of official, sporting and diplomatic figures.

Match details

Coach Ahmad Farran opened with a starting five of Sergio Darwish, Ali Mezher, Hayk Gyokchyan, Youssef Khayat and Derek Vanderbeek, with three influential players missing through injury: Wael Arakji, Ali Mansour and Jihad El Khatib.

Lebanon struck first through a Sergio Darwish three, but Korea hit back quickly, imposing their style with three straight three-pointers to move ahead 11-9, before stretching the gap to 22-16 and closing the first quarter in front 24-18.

In the second quarter Lebanon tried to respond and trimmed the deficit to 24-22, only for the Koreans to answer with fresh threes and push the score out to 33-26. Despite huge backing from the stands, which turned into one wall of noise, the visitors still led 41-38 at the break.

After the restart Lebanon kept up the pressure and drew level at 41-41. Korea briefly edged ahead 52-47, but roared on by the crowd the Cedars hit the front for the first time at 56-55 and took the third quarter 63-60.

The final quarter belonged to Lebanon. The Cedars led 66-60, then pulled clear thanks to a sparkling Omar Jamaleddine, whose back-to-back threes made it 72-66. With the pressure relentless, the Korean coach was forced into two consecutive timeouts, but to no avail. Lebanon rolled on until the lead reached 85-70 before sealing a deserved 93-74 victory.

Top scorers

Youssef Khayat led Lebanon's scorers with 21 points, followed by Sergio Darwish with 17 and Omar Jamaleddine with 16.