Aline Bannayan, The Jordan Times

AMMAN — The national basketball team plays Lebanon on Friday at the 35th William Jones Tournament currently under way in Taiwan, after losing to South Korea 67-57 on Thursday in their fifth match at the event.

So far, Jordan has only won one match against Taiwan (B) 86-77 and lost three other matches to Taiwan (A) 91-61, Iran 74-57 and Egypt 89-65.

Jordan is set to face Lebanon on Friday before playing Japan and a US team as the event concludes on July 14.

The team is readying for the 27th FIBA Asia Basketball Championship August 1-11 in the Philippines, where it would play Taiwan, the Philippines and Saudi Arabia in the first round.

Jordan has a new naturalised player, Jimmy Baxter, and a new technical director, Greece’s Vangelis Alexandris.

Alexandris said the team was “improving” from one match to another and that the aim was to be ready for the Asian finals. He told a press conference following the match that he had a relatively “new” lineup alluding to the fact of veterans like Mousa Awadi, Sam Daghlas and others who were not on the squad.

Jordan won the William Jones title in 2007 and 2008 and finished second in 2009 and 8th in 2012. Iran won the title in the past three years while Jordan did not compete in 2010 and 2011.

This year, Jordan finished third at West Asian Basketball Association Championship and qualified to the FIBA Asia Championship, which qualifies three teams to the 2014 World Championship in Spain.

Jordan reached the World Championship only once in 2010, after beating Lebanon in the third place match at the 25th FIBA Asia Championship.

Jordan lost the chance to automatically qualify to the 2012 Olympic Games when they lost 70-69 to China in the final of the 26th FIBA Asia Basketball Championship.

It was the first time in the country’s history that Jordan played the Asian final.

Jordan later played the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament (OQT) for Men in Venezuela but lost to Puerto Rico and Greece and failed to advance past the first round.

The OQT gave Asia’s second and third teams a chance to qualify to the London Games.