Results:
South Korea over Taiwan, 69-61
Quarter scoring: 19-11, 35-28, 50-46, 69-61
- The Taiwanese stayed close all throughout, but the Koreans managed to keep them at bay consistently.
- One main key was the Koreans outshooting the Taiwanese from rainbow country, and outmuscling them on the glass.
- Korea was paced by Kang Byung-Hyun's 17 points, on the strength of 5 triples. He was followed by Yang Dong-Geun and Lee Seung-Jun, who scored 13 points each.
- Le Cheng-Ju led the Taiwanese with 15 markers while Wu Tai-Hao and Chien Chia-Hung had 14 and 10 respectively.
- Oh Se-Keun further cemented his place as Korea's top big man with 10 rebounds.
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| Kang Byung-Hyun proved he's a deadly shooter (image by Kamoichi Kamoshida/Getty Images) |
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| Lu Cheng-Ju is an up-and-coming player from Taiwan (image from AFP/Getty Images) |
Japan over China, 72-62
Quarter scoring: 12-15, 24-38, 50-48, 72-62
- This was the first upset of the tournament, and compounds the "beatability" of a Chinese squad missing the services of its top ballers.
- The result is even more surprising since China dominated the smaller Japanese in the first half. Japan, however, started playing better defense and limited the Chinese to only 24 points in the second half.
- Japan was led by the frontcourt duo of Kenta Hirose and Kosuke Takeuchi. Both players finished in double figures and thoroughly outplayed their Chinese counterparts, expecially in the 4th quarter.
- The only bright spot for China was Zhang Zhaoxu, who finished with 16 points and 9 boards. Meng Duo backed him up with 9 markers while Mo Ke and Han Shuo each tallied 8.
Here are the match-ups for today:
For 3rd Place: Taiwan vs China
For the Championship: South Korea vs Japan
*Regardless of the results, these four teams will qualify for the FIBA-Asia Men's Championship in Wuhan, China.
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| Kenta Hirose hit the go-ahead bucket for the Japanese (image from Getty Images) |
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| Zhang Zhaoxu will compete for a center spot in the Chinese NT (image by AFP/Getty Images) |
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