Sunday, November 21, 2004

Stankovic Cup Day 1 – Taiwan, Syria open with blowout wins

The first edition of FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup opened with two blowout games in the first day of action. A new-and-improved Chen Hsin-an had 16 points and led Taiwan NT to a 98-61 victory over India, while Syria routed Japan 82-56.

Taiwan and India looked like two teams on different levels. Taiwan NT turned every missed shot and defensive rebound into a fastbreak, leading 26-6 in the end of the first quarter and declared the game over.

Chen Hsin-an, who joined the team after practicing with Orange County Crush of ABA for the first time, made 4 of 10 three-pointers and looked extremely confident. Taiwan NT made the game a 40-minutes garbage time and fastbreak drill, leading by more than 30 points before the end of third quarter.

Taiwan had six players scoring in double-digit.

In the opening game, Syria didn’t look like a team whose flight had been delayed for almost two days in Jordan because of a heavy fog and arrived in the gym just 30 minutes before tip-off. Syria opened the game which they never trailed with a 10-0 run and pounded Japan with inside advantage.

There’s more. Syria’s Michael Madanli tortured Japan with his deft shooting touch. Madanli scored a game-high 33 points on 12-for-23 shooting and made 7 of 12 foulshots to go with 5 rebounds and 4 steals.

Japan went through a cold shooting night and never found the basket, shooting an abysmal 31-for-71, including 3-for-23 behind the three-point line. Worst yet, they committed 23 turnovers. Ryota Sakurai led Japan with 10 points.

Syria 82-56 Japan
Syria – M. Madanli 33p+5rb+4s, M. Samman 15p+6rb, R. hasaballah 12p+8rb
Japan – R. Sakurai 10p, S. Furuta 9p+7rb, J. Takeuchi 9p+8rb, K. Takeuchi 2p+10rb

Taiwan 98-61 India
Taiwan – Chen Hsin-an 16p, Tsun Wen-din 15p, Tien Lei 14p, Chou Shih-yuan 12p,, Chang Chi-feng 11p, Wu Dai-hao 11p
India – S. Robinson 10p+9rb+3blk