Taiwan suffered another heartbreaking loss last night when they lost to Iran 65-57 in the last and most important preoiminary game. With the loss, Taiwan failed to make the quarterfinal in the Asian Championship and fell short of the goal of finishing in the top six.
Knowing it's a do-or-die game, Taiwan NT was out of sync in the last seven minutes and watched Iran pull the score away although it trailed by only two points at halftime.
Both teams presented abnormal rotation for the game. Iran's Jaber Rouzbahani sat out the whole game, and Taiwan didn't play Wu Dai-hao at all. Iran's wing players, not its Twin Tower, became the accidental heroes for the game as Iman Zandi scored 15 points and Pouya Tajik had 11.
Tien Lei led Taiwan with 17 points, including three three-pointers. Tsun Wen-din had 11 and Yang Yu-ming had 10. Taiwan will have to play in 9th-16th place classification games.