ULAANBAATAR (Mongolia) – Hosts Mongolia and Thailand continued their campaign in grand style each cantering their way to their second successive wins in Group D in the FIBA Asia Cup 2029 Pre-Qualifiers on Sunday.
Mongolia produce a performance that more than pleased the sell-put crowd to beat Fiji 102-40 after Thailand hand run circles around fellow SEABA team Vietnam in their 108-69 win.
Mongolia and Thailand, with the primary objective of advancing to the Second Round now done, will face off on Monday to decide the pool toppers, a result that carries weight in the cumulative score in the next round.
Fiji and Vietnam, having lost both their games will go in for a last gasp attempt on Monday and will battle it out for survival in a play-off for the third spot from this Group.
Orgil Khishigbaatar opened the scoring for Mongolia and the EABA team, which lost out to Guam in point differential in the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers, never looked back. The Fukui Blowinds center would go on to lead his team’s scoring with 16 points and seven rebounds.
Azbayar Altangerel dazzled once again combining with Uuganbayar Tumenbayar for 30 points.
Filimone Waqabaca’s eight points for Fiji, who surely would count upon improving their 16/56 field shooting against Vietnam on the morrow.
Thailand too lost out to Guam in the FIBA Asi Cup 2025 Qualifiers, but in the Second Round and have shown enough glimpses of their intentions to erase that memory.
Against Vietnam, they went about their business without much ado brooking no answers more often than not.
Emmanuel Chinedu Ejesu’s 18 points was the highest for Thailand in a line-up that saw all players figure in the scorers’ list.
Nguyen Huynh’s dozen led Vietnam.
FIBA