With the participation of Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the 22nd Emirates Airlines Men’s Basketball Championship for Arab teams began on 30 December 2016 at the Cairo International Stadium.
Egypt was the champion of the last edition of this championship, which took place in Sharm El-Sheikh. During the last edition the Egyptian team beat their Algerian rival in the final, by 78-54.
Egypt will be facing Algeria at 6.00pm on Tuesday. The Algerians will be looking to score an early victory against Egypt to make up for their loss last time around.
In this edition, the Egyptian national basketball team includes 12 players, who are: Karim El-Dahshan, Ahmed El-Selawy, Youssef Abo Shousha, Omar Tarek, Amr El-Gendy, Mostafa Mekkawi, Motaz Billah Okasha, Ramy Ibrahim, Moemen Mubarak, Mostafa Mashal, Mohamed Fouda, and Hamad Fathy.
The Egyptian team has played three matches so far. In its opening match Egypt defeated Bahrain 74-68, snatching an early victory.
In their second game, which was played on 1 January, Egypt was trounced by Morocco by 68-73. Unwilling to let the start of the year be soured by a loss, the Egyptian team dug in and defeated their third opponent, the UAE, 86-64 on 2 January.