Qatar naturalized player ranks No. 1 in scoring

MANILA, Philippines - Qatar naturalized player Jarvis Hayes led the field in scoring while Iranian center Hamed Hadadi and Kazakhstan guard Jerri Jamar Johnson stood out with solid all-around numbers in the first round of the preliminaries of the 27th FIBA Asia Championship.

Hayes averaged 22.5 points an outing while Hadadi and Johnson put in near double-double norms with the former logging 22 points and 9.3 rebounds an outing and the latter submitting 16.3 markers and 7.3 assists per game.

Marcus Douthit was No. 1 in blocks with 2.3 a game and fourth in rebounding with 10.0 boards an outing while LA Tenorio was joint ninth in assists with 3.3 an outing.

To underscore Gilas’ balanced offense, no Filipino player made the Top 10 in scoring.

Korea and China didn’t fare well in individual stats, indicating both play as a team.

Jordan’s Jimmy Baxter shared second place in scoring with Hadadi, and the two were followed by Indian Kumar Grewal (21), Japan’s Kosuke Kanamaru (18.5), Kazakh Mikhail Yevstigneyed (18.5), Taiwanese Lin Chih Chieh (18), Indian Vishesh Bhriguvanshi (17) and Saudi Arabia’s Ayman Belais Almuwallad (16.5).

Top board performers were Bahrain’s CJ Giles (14.67), KSA’s Mohammed Almarwani (11), Taipei’s Quincy Davis (10.3), Douthit, JR Sakuragi (10), Yaseen Musa (9.5), Hadadi, Kazakh Anton Ponomarev (9.3) and India’s Singh Amjyot (9.0).

Next to Johnson in the business of playmaking were Lin (6.67), Iran’s Samad Bahrami (5.3) and Mahdi Kamrani (4.67), Hong Kong’s Duncan Reid (4.5) and Japanese Ryota Sakurai (4.5).

Two Filipino players in Larry Fonacier (63.64 percent) and Jeff Chan (50 percent) made the Top 10 in three-point shooting percentage.

Malaysia’s Hong Hoong Gan was the best shooter, hitting at an 85.71 percent clip followed by Hayes and Kanamaru both at 75 percent.