Tien Lei's game-saving block and Chen Hsin-an two free-throws with 10.4 seconds to go helped Taiwan edge Kazakhstan 81-79 in the Doha Asian Games Monday night as Taiwan got the win it desperately needed and stayed in the contention of quarterfianl seeds.
Taiwan is now tied with South Korea 1-1 in the Group F. China and Japan, which surprised Lebanon 78-67, led the group with two wins.
Leading by as many as 12 points, Taiwan almost let the win slip away in the second half when its players kept missing free-throws. Taiwan was 8 of 17 free-throws in the game.
Fortunately the Kazakh couldn't find the basket all game, shooting 4 of 25 from threes, which usually is its specialty. Leading scorer Anton Ponomarev shot only 3 for 18 and scored 7 points.
Taiwan was once again led by Chen Hsin-an's 24 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. Tsun Wen-din had 12 points and 14 boards to go with 5 blocks. Tien Lei had 19 points and 4 blocks. Yang Che-yi scored 11.
Dmitriy Korovnikov had 19 points and 8 rebounds to pace Kazakhstan, which dropped two straight. Yevgeniy Issakov had 14 while Rustam Yargaliyev had 16.
In other games, China defeated Uzbekistan 91-68.
Standings:
Group E
Qatar 2-0
Jordan 2-0
South Korea 1-1
Iran 1-1
Syria 0-2
Bahrain 0-2
Group F
China 2-0
Japan 2-0
Taiwan 1-1
Lebanon 1-1
Kazakhstan 0-2
Uzbekistan 0-2