Taiwan missed two jumpers in the last 15 seconds that could have tied the game and lost to China 67-63 in the classification round on Saturday, finishing for the sixth place in the 2012 Asia Cup tournament in Tokyo, Japan.
Trailing 29-24 at the half and 49-47 at the end of the third quarter, Taiwan mounted the final comeback in the final period. Lee hsueh-lin’s three tied the game at 63-63 with 2:47 remaining before Zhao Tailong made a go-ahead jumper with 1:13 remaining.
Lin Chih-chieh, who had a team-high 20 points, and Lee Hsueh-lin missed consecutive jumpers in the last 15 seconds. Zhao then added another jumper for China, which sent its second national team with the average age of 20.7, with 0.5 second to go.
Final eight of the 2012 Asia Cup are: 1. Iran, 2. Japan, 3. Qatar, 4. Philippines, 5. China, 6. Taiwan, 7. Lebanon, 8. Uzbekistan.
Iran has earned an automatic bid for the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship for Men by winning the tournament while Lebanon would also automatically qualify as the host country.
Japan and China have earned two extra seats for the East Asia zone, which means the top four teams in the East Asia Basketball Championship (EABC) next year will secure berths in the Asia Championship. Taiwan should have no problem making the top four in the EABC.
(Photo: FIBA Asia)