The Philippines bounced back from losing to Taiwan by
beating Kazakhstan on Day 8 of the 2014 FIBA Asia U18 Championships. Batang
Gilas will play Japan today for fifth place. Meanwhile, China and Iran
prevailed in the semifinals to arrange a titular showdown for the U18 crown.
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| Mohammad Yousofvand is headed on a collision course with Zhou Qi in the Finals. |
SCORES
& RECAPS:
Day Eight:
HONG KONG over KUWAIT, 113-79
Hong Kong had a fast start and sustained it to beat
Kuwait for 11th place. The Hong Kongers led by 15 after one quarter
and extended this to 24 at the half and went on cruise control till the end. Yee
Fu Ho unloaded 32 points for the winners, hitting 7 triples in 26 minutes. Ka
Chung On also did well, dropping 20 markers along with 10 assists and 3 steals.
Ho Man Chu and Tsz Fung Lee added 17 and 12 points respectively. Kuwait drew a
team-high 29 points from star guard Hamad Hasan, but they were crippled by 29
turnovers and 45% shooting from the line.
QATAR over JORDAN, 52-51
In this nip-and-tuck affair, the hosts were the ones
who were tougher in the endgame, netting 9th place overall. Abdulrahman
Saad practically single-handedly carried Qatar to this big win, scoring 31
points on 12/27 FG shooting while also grabbing 11 rebounds and 3 steals.
Abdelrahman Abdelhaleem could only score 4 points, but he did grab 17 rebounds
and blocked 7 shots. On the other end, Mohammad Al-Abed Allat dropped 16
markers for the Jordanians.
JAPAN over MALAYSIA, 87-63
The Malaysians played tough for a whole half, staying
within striking distance of the Japanese before losing steam in the third
quarter. Japan forced Malaysia to commit 20 big turnovers while also hitting 32%
from beyond the arc. Akito Uchida dropped a huge 27-point game as Japan secured
a chance to net fifth place against the Philippines in their next game. Yuki
Mikami and Ryosuke Motomura paired up to hit 9 treys and score a combined 29
markers. Shota Tsuyama was in superb playmaking role, handing out 11 assists.
On the other end, Chun Hong Ting turned heads with 17 points and 8 rebounds,
but he shot 5/14 from the field.
PHILIPPINES over KAZAKHSTAN, 86-74
The Filipinos continued to struggle from long range
and from the stripe, lost the battle of the boards, and had more turnovers.
They should have lost this game, but, strangely enough, they still won, mainly
because of their aggressiveness. Batang Gilas was rewarded with 38 free throws,
and they made 24. Many of those charities went to Paul Desiderio, who made 9 of
11 from the 15-foot line. He ended up with a team-high 19 points on top of 8
rebounds. Another guy who did well was Mark Dyke, who tallied 10 markers and 9
boards. Alexandr Danilchenko and Valentin Kirilin scored 18 and 17 points
respectively for the Kazakhs.
IRAN over KOREA, 78-60
Korea looked good enough and headed well into the
Finals, leading by 10 at the break, but the Iranians regrouped, asserted their
advantage in the paint, and dominated all the way to the final buzzer. Mohammad
Yousofvand collected 17 rebounds along with 17 points while also having 5
assists and 2 blocks as Iran set a date with China for all the marbles. Navid
Rezaeifar backstopped the burly center with 18 markers and 3 steals, while Alli
Allahverdi and Abdolsamad Soroodi dropped 12 and 11 respectively. Jeon Hyun-Woo
hit 3 triples on his way to 16 points as the Koreans will face Taiwan in the
battle for the bronze.
CHINA over TAIWAN, 92-50
Taiwan was good enough to stick with the Chinese for
the first ten minutes, but they just couldn’t sustain it, getting outscored by 21
points in the second quarter. That ballooned to as big as 42 points, which is
the final difference. Six Chinese scored in double-digits, led by Zhao Rui’s 19
points, while Zou Yuchen and Zhou Qi scored 16 and 13 respectively. Sun Yung-Cheng,
meanwhile, netted a team-high 16 markers for Taiwan.
Images are
from FIBA Asia.
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