Thursday, September 07, 2006

Taiwan in Asia Championship for Junior Men semi

Taiwan Junior men's NT upset Kazakhstan 79-75 in its final second round game Wednesday night to advance to the semifinal of the 2006 FIBA Asia Championship for Junior Men, which is taking place in Urumqi, China.

Taiwan will meet South Korea in the semifinal Friday. Win or lose, this is going to be Taiwan's best finish in Asia Junior Men since 2000, when it finished for bronze. Taiwan was 6th- and 5th-place in 2002 and 2004.

The best finish is six years is not the only goal for Taiwan Junior. It will try to beat South Korea for one of three seeds for Asia in the World U-19 Men's Championship, which will be played in Vancouver, Canada next year.

Height disadvantage didn't stop Taiwanese from fighting for a semifinal berth, as it led from start to finish with small margins, leading 40-35 at the half. Chang Tsun-hsien and Lo Yu-chun had 19 points each, while center Tsai Jun-ming scored 14 points.

China will meet Lebanon in the other semifinal game.