Korea power their way past Chinese Taipei for maiden FIBA Asia U16 title

JAKARTA (2015 FIBA Asia U16 Championship) - Korea pulled out all stops at the beginning of the second half and ploughed on for a 69-78 win against a hitherto unbeaten Chinese Taipei for their first ever FIBA Asia U16 Championship title.

Korea thus ended the heartbreak of losing the Final on two earlier occasions – having gone down to China in the title round of the inaugural edition of this competition at Johor Bahru in 2009 and two years later at Nha Trang.

Chinese Taipei, who had posted eight successive wins in reaching their maiden Final, won their first ever medal.

Both the finalists, by virtue of playing in the title round, had already booked their tickets to the 2016 FIBA U17 World Championship in Spain.

Earlier, China had become the third Asian team to progress to the 2016 FIBA U17 World Championship in Spain beating Japan 80-58 in the third place play-off.

Korea's second half breakaway

Having fought on even keel for the entire first half – even being edged out at the end of both the quarters --  Korea came out all guns blazing at the start of the second.

Shin Minsuk and Lee Junghyun played equal parts in scoring – and almost in terms of contribution – as Korea opened the second half with a searing 9-0 run.

Chen Fan Po-Yen's fast break ended the barren run for Chinese Taipei, but Korea never led by less than five after that break away.

Lee Junghyn and Minwoo Park both scored 17 apiece to lead Korea's march to victory . Minsuk Shin added 16.

Lin Ting-Chien was Taipei's highest scorer with 19 points, a dozen of them having come in the first half.

China take charge in the second period, canter through to third-place finish

China needed a second quarter intensity, but cantered through thereafter to beat Japan 80-58.

Japan scored the first seven points of the game, but that was never going to last against China.

The three-time reigning champions clawed their way back into the game and Xu Jie's drive in the lane cut down the deficit to two (14-16) at the end of the first quarter for China.

It was China's turn at the start of the second period to go on a scoring run. Zhao Yanman reeled in a series to take China level the score and turn the tide.

Wang Rui took over from there with his own string of efforts as China scored the first eleven points of the game.

Wang Rui went on to account for seven of his game-high 22 points in the second period.

In all China outscored Japan 23-8 in the second period to take a vice-like grip on the game.

Wang Jianjun's team only grew in strength thenceforth.

 Xu Jie added 20 points for China, reeling in four of his seven three-pointer attempts.

Yudai Nishida's 18 points paced Japan, who finished with the No 4 ranking for the second successive time.


Philippines finish in 5th place

Philippines, who fell out of the Final Four for the time in the history of the competition, salvaged some pride beating Lebanon 89-74 to take the fifth place.

Kuwait take 7th position

Thailand started the proceedings for the Final day beating Kuwait 69-49 in the seventh place play-off for their highest ever ranking in four editions of the competition.

FIBA