Monday, August 09, 2010

Stankovic Cup - Taiwan beat Kazakhstan for first win

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Yang Ching-min scored 22 points and Chen Shun-hsiang added 16 as Taiwan bounced back from a disappointing loss to Japan and defeat Kazakhstan 80-64 Sunday in the 2010 Stankovic Cup, which is being held in Beiruit, Lebanon.

Taiwan fared much better on the glass, compared to its opening game performance against Japan (35-16), despite being outrebounded 48-35 again. It broke the game open with a 25-15 third quarter run for its first win in the tourney.

PG Lee Hseuh-lin, who is expected to sign with China's Beijing Ducks next season, had 11 points, 10 assists and 7 steals. Center Tseng Wen-ting also shook off his slump and chipped in 11 points to go with 8 rebounds.

Kazakhstan was led by Dmitriy Gavrilov's 14 points and Dmitriy Kilmov's 12 points.

Taiwan is scheduled to meet Iran tonight. According to the China Times, 7-2 center Hamed Haddadi and 6-6 swingman Nikkhah Bahrami is not with the Iranian team in Beiruit, which boosts Taiwan's chance of winning.

Standings:

Group A
Iran 1-0
Japan 1-1
Kazakhstan 1-1
Taiwan 1-1
Iraq 0-1

Group B
Qatar 2-0
Lebanon 1-0
Philippines 1-1
Jordan 0-1
Syria 0-2

(Photo: FIBA Asia)