MANILA (FIBA Asia Championship/FIBA Basketball World Cup) - Iran and the Philippines will meet in Sunday's Final of the FIBA Asia Championship and then start packing their bags for the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain after both claiming Semi-Final victories on Saturday.

Before the Championship Game, Korea will face Chinese Taipei in the Third-Place Game with the third and final Asian qualification place for Spain 2014 at stake.

After a breathtaking game that will go down as an all-time classic, the Philippines qualified for the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

Without the services of injured star Marcus Douthit for most of the game, the host nation took every shot Korea could throw at them before prevailing 86-79 in Saturday's second Semi-Final in Manila.

The Koreans charged back from a nine-point deficit to take the lead in the final term, but Ranidel de Ocampo (11 points, 6 rebounds), Jason 'Castro' William (17 points) and Jean Marc Pingris (16 points, 10 rebounds) made big plays to keep the host nation's head above water.

Then, as the tension reached boiling point, crowd favourite Jim Alapag buried two enormous three-pointers in the final minutes to seal victory.

For Korea, Kim Mingoo was simply superb with 27 points on 60 per cent shooting.

Korea's clever use of the ball-screen tested the home team's defense early, and only three quick buckets from Castro kept the Philippines in touch.

Korea were putting on a fast-break clinic as their big men consistently out-sprinted their opponents down the floor, and with Douthit benched the Philippines looked in trouble.

But Pingris defied his hamstring injury to score eight tough points in the final 3:30 of the half to limit the damage to just three points.

Castro then took over after the break, seven quick points sparking his team, and while Korea made a number of big shots, a buzzer-beating dunk from Japeth Aguilar put the hosts clear 65-56 with 10 minutes remaining.

A pair of clutch triples from Kim Mingoo gave the Koreans life early in the fourth. When he completed a four-point play the margin was just one with 4:40 to play, then Lee Seung Jun put Korea in front with a dunk on the next play.

The lead then changed hands on possession after possession like heavyweight boxers exchanging blows, but Korea were finally floored by Alapag's clutch shooting, which brought the roof off the Mall of Asia and fired his team to the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

In the first Semi-Final, the size, speed and relentless hustle of Iran delivered them a place to Spain 2014.

The FIBA Asia Championship favourites also booked a spot in Sunday’s title game after dominating Chinese Taipei 79-60.

After Taipei had made all the early running, Iran were hoisted on the diminutive shoulders of point guard Mahdi Kamrany (19 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists), whose aggressive defense and unstoppable penetration changed the game.

"They made all the shots in first quarter, but after that we were able to control them with aggressive defense," said Iran coach Memi Becirovic.

"We deserved to win, we played well for 30 minutes."

Hamed Hadadi was a tower of strength for Iran with 17 points and 14 rebounds, his duel with Quincy Davis III (16 points, 5 rebounds) one of the highlights.

Early on Iran took the air out of the ball, looking for Hadadi inside, but they couldn't shake Taipei from their free-wheeling style.

With Lin Chih-Chieh and Tsai Wen-Cheng finding plenty of holes in the passive defense the underdogs broke clear, and when Chen Shih-Chieh nailed an improbable leaning buzzer-beater Taipei had a 23-14 edge at quarter-time.

The Iranians rediscovered their trademark defensive intensity in the second, forcing turnover after turnover, with Kamrany leading the stunning fast-break offence on a 17-0 run to reclaim the lead.

The margin then extended into double figures, with only the workmanlike efforts of Davis allowing his team to sneak back within six points at the long break.

But while Chinese Taipei had solved their turnover issues by the third quarter they were still helpless on the boards, Iran using their 48-26 rebounding edge to extend the margin past 20 by the last break.

Starved of the ball, the men from Taipei had little chance of reeling in the 2007 and 2009 champions and now must qualify for the FIBA Basketball World Cup through the Third-Place Game on Sunday.

"Iran is a great team, each player in this team is special," Chinese Taipei coach Hsu Chin-Tse said.

"We could not control the rebound and that killed us." 

For full and in-depth coverage of the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship, go to the official website http://manila2013.fibaasia.net.

FIBA