2009 Asian Championship: Taiwan takes 5th place

TIANJIN (FIBA Asia Championship) - Chinese Taipei defeated Qatar 87-79 to take the fifth place on Sunday.

For Taipei, who had finished sixth in the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship, it was a move up the ranking.

For Qatar too it was an improvement over their last edition finish. The 2005 FIBA Asia Championship bronze medalists Qatar had finished seventh at Tokushima.

Yang Chin-min led the Taipei scoring with 19 points to share the honours for the game with Mustafa Elsayd.

Tien Lie and Lee Hsueh-Lin chipped in with 17 points each in Taipei’s cause.

FIBA Asia

(Photos: Fiba.com)

Stats: Taiwan beat Qatar 87-79 for 5th place

QATAR vs. CHINESE TAIPEI 79:87

*QUARTER RESULTS*
Q1: 24:27
Q2: 20:21
Q3: 22:17
Q4: 13:22

*GAME STATISTICS QATAR*
2 Pointers: 24/39 (62%)
3 Pointers: 7/22 (32%)
Free Throws: 10/15 (67%)
Fouls: 18
Steals: 6
Turnovers: 20
Off. Rebounds: 12
Def. Rebounds: 22
Biggest Lead: 8
Biggest run: 9

*GAME STATISTICS CHINESE TAIPEI*
2 Pointers: 19/30 (63%)
3 Pointers: 9/23 (39%)
Free Throws: 22/26 (85%)
Fouls: 12
Steals: 7
Turnovers: 14
Off. Rebounds: 3
Def. Rebounds: 20
Biggest Lead: 12
Biggest run: 8

TOP PLAYERS
top scorer for QATAR: Mustafa Elsayad (19 points, 26 Minutes)
top scorer for CHINESE TAIPEI: Chin-Min Yang (19 points, 26 Minutes)
top rebounder for QATAR: Saad Abdulrahman Ali (7 rebounds, 34 Minutes)
top rebounder for CHINESE TAIPEI: Hsueh-Lin Lee (4 rebounds, 31 Minutes), Lei Tien (4 rebounds, 33 Minutes)
leader in assists for QATAR: Saad Abdulrahman Ali (5 assists, 34 Minutes)
leader in assists for CHINESE TAIPEI: Hsueh-Lin Lee (5 assists, 31 Minutes)

Referees: EGHO Marwan (LIB), BUDDHIKA K. (SRI), JUN Sung Ki (KOR)
Commissioner: CHAN Jimmy (HKG)

Asian Championship Aug. 15 game highlights

Taiwan vs. Korea

Philippines vs. Qatar

Iran vs. Jordan

Taiwan lost to China 101-83

TIANJIN (FIBA Asia Championship) - Chinese Taipei did rather well in the early phases of their quarterfinal game against hosts China on Friday.

The wild card entrants even managed to take a five-point lead in the closing minutes of the first half. But that only piqued the Chinese.

For, the hosts unleashed a scorching 15-2 run from that point to close the second quarter comfortably ahead and continued relentlessly till they finished with a 101-83 win.

The win put former champions China in the semifinals, after finishing 10th at the Tokushima FIBA Asia Championship two years ago.

China seemed to hold the edge in scoring going into the second quarter.

But Tien Lie sprang a surprise on the Chinese, scoring 13 points of his team-high 17 for the game, as Taipei caught their rivals off guard.

But this was to be no David slaying Goliath story.

China who had looked complacent defensively till then, even during the time when they led, pulled up their socks to almost shut Taipei completely out after that.

Rebounds, especially those in defence, played a crucial role in China’s resurgence.

The hosts who had 13 defensive rebounds in the first half, out of a total 20, almost doubled it in the third quarter collecting 22 defensive boards in a total of 32 collections.

China won the battle of boards 43-26 finally.

Yi Jianlian and Wang Zhizhi led the scoring for China with 25 points each, with the former returning a double-double.

New Jersey Nets’ Yi scored 25 points and collected 14 rebounds.

Wang, the first Chinese player to enter the NBA ranks, had eight boards.

Wang Shipeng added 10 in the second half to his first half’s four, including a 2/3 effort in three-pointers as Hu Xuefeng had a game-high six assists – all of them in the second half.

Tien drew a blank in the second half and Chang Tsung-Hsien, who scored 12 of his 14 points for the game ploughed a lone furrow for Taipei.

S Mageshwaran
FIBA Asia

Taiwan shuts out Japan, enters last eight

TIANJIN (FIBA Asia Championship) - Wildcard entrants Chinese Taipei showed more variety in their offensive plays and defeated fellow East Asian nation Japan 99-79 in a crucial Group E game on Wednesday.

The win helped Taipei finish their eight-final round with 2-3 record and take the last available quarterfinal place from Group E.

Taipei will now play against the top finishing team of Group F in the quarterfinals slated for Friday.

“It’s quite an achievement entering the last eight in this highly competitive fray,” said Taipei coach Chung Kwang-Suk.

“We’ve had our ups and down. I’m glad we made the quarterfinals,” Chung added.

Japan, who finished 1-4, failed to make the top eight for the first time in the FIBA Asia Championships. They will now play the 9-12 classification.

“It’s not easy talking about of a losing team day in and day out,” said Japan coach Osamu Kuraishi.

“We are going to salvage as much as possible in the classification and play for national pride,” Kurashi added.

“But more importantly we will run a thorough analysis on what went wrong when we get back home,” he said.

Japan held the scoring edge in the first five minutes of the game but a 10-0 run turned the tables in Taipei’s favour.

Taipei didn’t allow Japan to even the tie scores after that.

Taipei unleashed a scorching 14-4 scoring advantage in the first five minutes of the second half to take the game further away leaving Japan no chance to recover.

Tseng-Wen Ting led the Taipei cause, especially in that third quarter charge. Tseng-Wen returned a game-high 20 points, 14 of them in the second half.

Lee Hsueh-Lin and Chang Chih-Feng had held the Taipei campaign on course before that.

Lee Hsueh scored 15 of his game’s 16 points in the first half. And Chang Chih contributed 12 for the game, 10 of them in the first quarter.

Tien Li was consistent throughout for his 16 points.

Joji Takeuchi and Kei Igarashi shared the scoring honours for Japan with 18 points each.

Igarashi was more consistent but Tokeuchi scored 16 of his game’s score in the first half.

S Mageshwaran
FIBA Asia

Another close game, another loss for Taiwan NT

TIANJIN (FIBA Asia Championship) - Korea warded off a spirited third quarter rally by fellow East Asian rivals Chinese Taipei and won their Group E eight-final round game on Tuesday 72-70.

Korea’s 4-0 record earned out of the win now pits them against defending champions Iran – who also have a similar run – on the morrow in a virtual play off for the top place in Group F.

Chinese Taipei are 1-3 and will be involved in a face off of their own against another East Asian nation Japan – who also are 1-3.

Korea scored the first nine points of the game, hung grimly to that advantage and seemed headed for a comfortable ride going into the change room, when they led 43-35.

But Chang Tsung-Hsien and Tien Li sparked a splendid rally in the third quarter when Taipei outscored their rivals 15-9.

As a result Taipei were only two points behind when they started the fourth quarter.

Chang scored five of his game’s 17 points and Tien six of his nine during the third quarter.

Taipei went into lead for the first time in the game when Chen Tzu-Wei sank a three-pointer to raise hopes of an upset result.

But Korea found their saviour in their reliable centre Kim Joo Sung.

Kim Joo Sung scored eight of his game-high 20 points during the final ten minutes as Korea scraped through.

Yang Heejong with his 15 was the other important scorer for Korea.

“Of course they caught us by surprise,” Korea coach Hur Jae said.

“They have always been a tough side to play against. We are very well aware each other’s game. So such surprises are always possible. We are glad we could scrape through,” Jae added.

“Things began to place rather slowly for us,” said Chinese Taipei coach Chung Kwang-suk.

“But after that early deficit we gave, we had to try real hard to equalize. Against a quality opposition that was not sufficient,” said Chung, incidentally a Korean by origin.

S Mageshwaran
FIBA Asia

Philippines handed Taiwan first loss in 2nd round

TIANJIN (FIBA Asia Championship) - James Yap scored 15 of his game-high 23 points in the third quarter and SEABA champions Philippines staged a superb second half rally to defeat wild card entrants Chinese Taipei 77-70 in pivotal Group E eight-final round game on Monday.

James Yap returned a 55.55% field record (5/9), including a staggering 4/6 in three-pointers as Philippines outscored Taipei 29-19 in the third quarter.

Philippines who had inched their way back to a two-point deficit by the end of the first half, thus perched themselves firmly in the driving seat.

Yap fired six successive points in less than a minute midway through the first quarter and Philippines had transformed a 38-41 to a 44-41 lead in quick jiffy.

That was the first time Philippines went ahead in the game and they never trailed again.

Yap had no further success in the fourth quarter, but his third quarter blitz was good enough for his team.

Willie Miller Jr had an all-round consistent shooting performance and scored 17 points for Philippines, with a 75% record in field attempts, converting all his five three-pointer attempts.

"I think our shooting percentage was the key especially in three-pointers," Philippines coach Joseller Guiao said.

Philippines went 50% (15/30) in three-pointers as against Taipei's woeful 7% (1/15).

Chinese Taipei who led for the better part of the game suffered a mid-game slump.

"I think their defence really caught us by surprise in the second half," Taipei coach Chung Kwang-suk said.

Tseng Wen-Ting, who went on to finish as Taipei's leading scorer with 21 points, had only three to add in the third quarter to his eight first half points.

Philippines coach Joseller Guiao worked out some tight defence plans, which his players executed and Tseng was restricted to merely one look at the goal for the entire third quarter.

"Not that we had anything special worked out for him (Tseng). It was just that the entire defence stepped up in the third quarter," Guiao said.

"But he's a very good player, and a smart player. He really scared us in the fourth quarter," Guiao added.

Tseng converted that one attempt and fought back gallantly in the fourth quarter reeling in 10 points, but by then Philippines had hot cruise mode.

Miller's three-pointer that almost coincided with the final buzzer sealed the issue.

Asian Championship 1st & 2nd round facts

Preliminary Round Results

Aug. 6
Philippines    Sri Lanka    115 - 31
Kazakhstan    Qatar    62 - 77
Korea    Japan    95 - 74
Iran    Chinese Taipei    71 - 67
India    China    49 - 121
Indonesia    United Arab Emirates    63 - 68
Kuwait    Uzbekistan    69 - 64
Lebanon    Jordan    67 - 84

Aug. 7
Korea    Sri Lanka    122 - 54
Jordan    Indonesia    105 - 47
Lebanon    United Arab Emirates    108 - 38
Chinese Taipei    Kuwait    73 - 51
Kazakhstan    China    56 - 74
Qatar    India    95 - 70
Japan    Philippines    69 - 78
Iran    Uzbekistan    82 - 61

Aug. 8
United Arab Emirates    Jordan    67 - 79
Uzbekistan    Chinese Taipei    78 - 102
Sri Lanka    Japan    45 - 148
Kuwait    Iran    46 - 94
China    Qatar    92 - 61
India    Kazakhstan    72 - 74
Philippines    Korea    56 - 69
Indonesia    Lebanon    36 - 123

Preliminary round standing

Group A
Korea 3-0
Philippines 2-1
Japan 1-2
Sri Lanka 0-3

Group B
Iran 3-0
Taiwan 2-1
Kuwait 1-2
Uzbekistan 0-3

Group C
China 3-0
Qatar 2-1
Kazakhstan 1-2
India 0-3

Group D
Jordan 3-0
Lebanon 2-1
UAE 1-2
Indonesia 0-3

Second Round brackets

Group E
Korea 3-0
Iran 3-0
Philippines 2-1
Taiwan 2-1
Japan 1-2
Kuwait 1-2

Group F
China 3-0
Jordan 3-0
Lebanon 2-1
Qatar 2-1
Kazakhstan 1-2
UAE 1-2

Photos: Taiwan vs. Uzbekistan

(Source: FIBA.com)

Stats: Taiwan vs. Uzbekistan

UZBEKISTAN vs. CHINESE TAIPEI 78:102
*QUARTER RESULTS*
Q1: 10:23
Q2: 19:29
Q3: 18:27
Q4: 31:23
*GAME STATISTICS UZBEKISTAN*
2 Pointers: 21/34 (62%)
3 Pointers: 6/26 (23%)
Free Throws: 18/26 (69%)
Fouls: 20
Steals: 7
Turnovers: 23
Off. Rebounds: 12
Def. Rebounds: 31
Biggest Lead: 0
Biggest run: 12
*GAME STATISTICS CHINESE TAIPEI*
2 Pointers: 24/47 (51%)
3 Pointers: 11/29 (38%)
Free Throws: 21/28 (75%)
Fouls: 21
Steals: 14
Turnovers: 15
Off. Rebounds: 15
Def. Rebounds: 25
Biggest Lead: 34
Biggest run: 11
TOP PLAYERS
top scorer for UZBEKISTAN: Aleksandr Kozlov (25 points, 35 Minutes)
top scorer for CHINESE TAIPEI: Tsung-Hsien Chang (22 points, 22 Minutes)
top rebounder for UZBEKISTAN: Ildar Safarov (11 rebounds, 30 Minutes)
top rebounder for CHINESE TAIPEI: Wen-Ting Tseng (6 rebounds, 14 Minutes)
leader in assists for UZBEKISTAN: Aleksandr Kozlov (4 assists, 35 Minutes)
leader in assists for CHINESE TAIPEI: I-Chieh Su (7 assists, 21 Minutes)
Referees: FUJIGAKI Yoji (JPN), EGHO Marwan (LIB), PASCUAL Ferdinand (PHI)
Commissioner: CHAN Jimmy (HKG)

(Source: FIBA.com)