2013 FIBA Asia Men’s Championships Roundup: Day Seven

Quarterfinal action began and ended on Day 7 of the 2013 FIBA Asia Men’s Championships at the ultra-modern Mall of Asia Arena, and the highlight was, undoubtedly, Taiwan’s gargantuan upset of perennial title contenders China to advance to the semifinals. Also joining TPE in the final four are undefeated Iran,  the speedy Koreans, and hometown favorites Gilas Pilipinas.

Gary David finally caught fire after struggling
in his first six games.

In the first game of the day, Hong Kong finally caught a break and snatched a W, beating Bahrain, 87-79, to book a seat in the battle for 9th place tomorrow. The Hong Kongers had a fast start to the game, racing to a 12-point bubble after one period before the Red Wolves got their bearings and leveled it at the half. The second half belonged to Hong Kong, though, as the wards of coach Kwong Wai Cheung just seemed to hustle more toward the loose balls and plainly just wanted the win more than their foes. Duncan Reid impressed anew with 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists, while Lee Ki added 16 markers on the strength of 4 triples. Bahrain was paced by pint-sized guard Hussain Al Tawash Shaker, who netted a game-high 29 markers on 9/14 FG shooting

Hussain Shaker drives past Lee Ki.

Fong Shing Yee tries to pass away from
the Bahraini D.

The second game of the day featured a humdinger. For three quarters, Japan was in danger of finishing outside of the top 10 for the first time in FIBA Asia/ABC history. With top sniper Kosuke Kanamaru shooting blanks for the fifth straight game, Team Hayabusa struggled mightily against an Indian team with nothing to lose. Coach Scott Flemming's wards started strong, outscoring and outworking the Japanese, who won just one game prior to this match. Rikin Pethani and Amjyot Singh were beating their men to the rebounds, while Joginder Singh and Vishesh Bhriguvanshi were running rings around their defenders. Coach Kimikazu Suzuki's boys, however, rallied in the second half behind the playmaking of Ryota Sakurai and Naoto Tsuji. The Japs' defense clicked and Sakurai and Tsuji were able to set their teammates up in scoring positions. Kosuke Takeuchi and Tsuji led Japan's charge with 12 points apiece, while Atsuya Ota, Makoto Hiejima, and JR Sakuragi each scored 10 markers. Bhriguvanshi led India with a dozen points. This is now the second time India has led for most of the game only to falter in the end. The same thing happened in their game against Bahrain in the prelims.

JR Sakuragi tries to back down against Rikin Pethani.

Vishesh Bhriguvanshi's team nearly toppled
the mighty Japanese.

The third game saw the Iranians not wasting any time, throttling Jordan, 94-50, to book the first semifinals ticket in Manila. This was definitely no repeat of 2011, when Jordan upset the top-seeded Iran squad in the quarterfinals. It actually seems Hamed Haddadi and Co. are still bitter about that loss, and they vented all their frustration on the hapless Jordanians. Haddadi led Iran with 20 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 blocks, while Hamed Afagh and Oshin Sahakian netted 18 and 14 markers respectively in support. Jimmy Baxter led Jordan's scoring, but scoring 13 points is way below expectations for a player of his caliber. He shot just 4/14 from the field, while the entire Jordan team struggled, making just 28% of its field goals. Nobody else scored more than 8 points for coach Vangelis Alexandris.

Wesam Al Sous and the Jordanians were
just obliterated by Iran.

Hamed Haddadi stood tall against Jordan.

In the fourth game of the day, the biggest upset of the tournament, and of recent FIBA Asia history, happened. It's bad enough that Taiwan had to play the defending champs, but that was made even worse by the fact starting PG Lee Hsueh-Lin was injured. In his place, Hung Chih-Shan of the Dongguan Leopards was inserted as the starting playmaker, and, man, he delivered in spades. Hung hit 3 triples, grabbed 4 rebounds, and assisted on 5 baskets, finishing with 11 points as Taiwan beat China, 96-78, for the first time in the modern era. Qunicy Davis also played well, dropping 26 points and grabbing 10 boards in nearly 38 minutes of play, canceling out the production of China's Yi Jianlian, who scored 22 markers and also had 10 boards. Also stepping up for Taiwan were Tsai Wen-Cheng and Lin Chih-Chieh, who scored 21 and 17 markers respectively. This huge upset gives Taiwan the second semifinals ticket, while relegating China to the consolation round for 5th-8th places. This loss solidifies the notion that this tournament will be remembered as a big fiasco for Team China, which has long dominated the Asian hoops scene and is the defending champion.

Quincy Davis slams one home as the Taiwanese
upset the defending champs.

Not even the imposing presence of
Yi Jianlian could tow China to victory.

The fifth game of the day featured Gilas Pilipinas formalizing its entry in the semifinals after blasting a tough Kazakh side, 88-58. The score, however, doesn't really reflect the competitiveness and physicality game. Case in point: Dimo Klimov was thrown out of the playing area after incurring his second technical foul. Gilas shot well from the field in this encounter, with the guys connecting on nearly half of their attempts. Of course, it also helped that Gilas made THIRTEEN triples. The home team dominated most stat categories -- +5 in rebounds, +10 in assists, and +6 in blocks. Kazakhstan, meanwhile, struggled mightily with its shot , as most of the guys misfired, sometimes even when given easy looks. The Central Asia powerhouse team also continued to get inconsistent performance from its stars, in particular Anton Ponomarev, who may have been a legit NBA prospect once, but right now he hasn't had much to show for. Other big keys were the contributions of Gary David and Japeth Aguilar. David finally caught fire, scoring 22 points in just 17 minutes of play. He connected on 4 triples. Aguilar, too, was solid, scoring 11 points, grabbing 9 rebounds, and blocking two shots. Also, because Japeth played so well today, coach Chot was able to afford to rest Marcus Douthit.

Japeth Aguilar was, again, a big factor in
Gilas's win over Kazakhstan.

Jerry Johnson tries to drive past Gabe Norwood.

The day ended with South Korea returning to the FIBA Asia semifinals after an emphatic win over an injury-plagued Qatari five, 79-52. Jarvis Hayes and Erfan Ali Saeed, two key players in the Qatari machine, got injured in the second half, with Hayes limping off the court with a sprained ankle. Consequently, he is doubtful for Qatar's consolation game today against Kazakhstan. Korea led practically from the get-go, with Cho Sung-Min leading the charge. The super sniper from Busan KT Sonic Boom drained 2 triples on his way to scoring a game-high 16 points. He was backstopped by Lee Seung-Jun and Yoon Ho-Young, who scored 12 and 10 markers respectively. Young wingman Kim Min-Goo of Kyung Hee University also impressed, scoring 9 points while hauling down 7 rebounds and dishing out 4 dimes. On the other end, Hayes and Saeed were the highest-pointers for Qatar with 10 points apiece.

Kim Jong-Kyu rattles the rim against Qatar.

Erfan Ali Saeed tries to break the airtight interior
defense of the Koreans.

2013 FIBA Asia Championship Semifinals

Saturday Games

Semifinals:

S1: Iran vs Taiwan

S2: Philippines vs South Korea

Consolation:

C1: Jordan vs China

C2: Kazakhstan vs Qatar

Classification:

For 9th: Japan vs Hong Kong

For 11th: Bahrain vs India

Sunday Games

Final Round:

For 7^th: Loser C1 vs Loser C2

For 5^th: Winner C1 vs Winner C2

For 3^rd: Loser S1 vs Loser S2

Championship: Winner S1 vs Winner S2

THE TOP THREE (3) TEAMS – Champion, Second Place, and Third Place – will all get slots in the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Madrid, Spain.

It is also still possible that FIBA will select and invite a fourth Asian team as a “wildcard,” but the chances of that happening are very slim.

BOX SCORES:

HONG KONG over BAHRAIN, 87-79

HKG 87 - Reid 20, Lee 16, Fong 13, Li 12, Lam 11, Wong 5, Chan S 5, Lau Tz 3, Chan Y 2, Lau Tu 0

BRN 79 - Shaker 29, Al Derazi 16, Quwayed M 14, Hussain 11, najaf 5, Azzam 4, Quwayed Y 0

QS: 30-18, 43-43, 63-59, 87-79

JAPAN over INDIA, 73-64

JPN 73 - Takeuchi 12, Tsuji 12, Ota 10, Hiejima 10, Sakuragi 10, Tanaka 9, Matsui 3, Ichioka 3, Sakurai 2, Watanabe 2, Kanamaru 0

IND 64 - Bhriguvanshi 12, Pethani 11, Singh J 9, Singh Amj 9, Singh Y 7, Grewal 6, Singh Amr 6

QS: 16-25, 29-41, 50-54, 73-64

IRAN over JORDAN, 94-50

IRI 94 - Haddadi 20, Afagh 18, Sahakian 14, Kamrani 11, Jamshidi 11, Bahrami 8, Sohrabnejad 5, Arghavan 3, Davari 2, Kardoust 2, Davoudi 0, Veisi 0

JOR 50 - Baxter 13, Hadrab 8, Zaghab 6, Al Hamarsheh 5, Al Dwairi 4, Abu Ruqayah 4, Al Sous 3, Al Faraj 2, Abu Qoura 2, Abdeen 2, Al Najjar 1, Hussein 0

QS: 31-11, 53-28, 74-36, 94-50

TAIWAN over CHINA, 96-78

TPE 96 - Davis 26, Tsai 21, Lin 17, Tien 13, Hung 11, Lu 7, Yang 1, Tseng 0, Chen 0

CHN 78 - Yi 22, Wang S 17, Zhu 11, Wang ZL 10, Wang ZZ 9, Zhou 7, Guo 2, Sun 0, Liu 0, Chen 0, Zhang 0

QS: 20-28, 40-50, 71-62, 96-78

PHILIPPINES over KAZAKHSTAN, 88-58

PHL 88 - David 22, Castro 13, Aguilar 11, Norwood 10, chan 7, Pingris 6, De Ocampo 6, Douthit 5, Tenorio 3, Fonacier 3, Alapag 2, Fajardo 0

KAZ 58 - Klimov 14, Johnson 8, Ponomarev 8, Yevstigneyev 6, Murzagaliev 5, Lapchenko 5, Bondarovich 4, Zhigulin 3, Sultanov 3, Yargaliev 2, Bazhin 0

QS: 32-15, 51-40, 67-49, 88-58

KOREA over QATAR, 79-52

KOR 79 - Cho 16, Lee SJ 12, Yoon 10, Kim MG 9, Yang 7, Kim SH 7, Kim JK 6, Kim TS 6, Kim JS 4, Lee JH 2, Choi 0

QAT 52 - Hayes 10, Saeed 10, Daoud 9, Abdi 6, Abdulrahman 6, El Hadary 3, Musa 3, Abdullah Mo 2, Mohammed 2, Ali 1, Yousef 0, Abdullah Ma 0

QS: 24-14, 40-28, 61-42, 79-52

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