204cm C Tsun Wen-din had 23 points and 7 rebounds as Taiwan NT posted an 85-71 victory over Hong Kong yesterday (Oct. 10) afternoon. Taiwan finished for the 7th place in the 2002 Pusan Asian Games, the worst outcome in Asian Games Men's basketball history.
Taiwan also finished for 7th -- the worst ABC Championship performance -- in last year's ABC Championship.
Facing a must-win game, Taiwan head coach Lee Yung-kwang put only eight players on the floor. Only five of them scored. Other than Tsun, who made 10 of his 11 field goal attempts, backcourt partners Chiu Chi-yi and Yang Yu-ming each had 17 points. Taiwan trailed early in the first quarter but pulled ahead for good before halftime.
The defending champion China will meet Kazakhstan in semifinal tomorrow, while host South Korea takes on Philippines. On the final day of the tournament, October 14, semifinal winners will meet for gold. Japan will meet North Korea in the 5-th place game.
GAME SUMMARY
Oct. 10
#Qatar 69-41 UAE (Half 27-16)
QAT - O. Husam 22p+10rb, I. Yasseen 12p+11rb, A. Baker 17p ; UAE - M. Salem 13p
#Taiwan 85-71 Hong Kong (Half 47-39)
TAI - Tsun Wen-din 23p(10-11 FG)+7rb, Chiu Chi-yi 17p, Yang Yu-ming 17p, Wu Chih-wei 16p+6rb+4a, Lee Chi-ming 12p, Tien Lei 0p+1rb ; HK - Lui Chor-wai 23p, Tam Wai-yeung 18p+13rb
Oct. 9
#South Korea 114-98 Kazakhstan (Half 63-45)
KOR - Moon Kyung-eun 22p(6-7 3PT), Bang Sung-yoon 21p+7rb, Kim Joo-sung 16p+9rb, Seo Jang-hoon 18p+7rb, Chun Hee-chul 15p ; KAZ - M. Dedov 25p, Y. Issakov 22p+7rb, V. Strebkov 23p
#Kuwait 99-72 Mongolia (Half 68-36)
KUW - O. Mubarak 20p+6rb, H. Baroun 18p