BEIJING (China) - Korea needed some help from Lady Luck to escape China, 80-76, in a pulsating FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers encounter between long-time rivals at the Wukesong Arena, Friday night.
The crew appeared to be on the way to a blowout victory when it built a commanding 77-58 lead with 4:11 remaining in the game but the home team doubled down on defense to stage a furious comeback.
That wide of a cushion got deflated to just three, 79-76, with 21 seconds left behind the hot shooting of Zhang Zhenlin from deep, but Team Dragon lost steam afterward much to the relief of the visiting squad.
Zhang flunked from beyond the arc twice as he tried to tie things up, and An Youngjun was there to collar his second miss with three-tenths of a second left as the door closed on the Chinese and their hopes.
An was actually fouled upon securing the board and he went on to split his shots from the foul line, not only to settle the final score but to make sure that they'd leave the city with the vengeful win in the bag.
It could be recalled that Team Korea lost to China in the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Quarter-Finals by way of a 79-71 decision, one of the latter's crucial wins that eventually led to a silver-medal finish behind Australia.
Key players
Those lucky breaks in the endgame, furthermore, saved the efforts of Lee Hyunjung, who starred for his side with 33 points behind 9 triples, which is now the all-time single game record in the Asian Qualifiers.
The star forward waxed hot early as he already had 20 points in the first half, 12 of which he made in the opening frame alone. He finished with a 12-of-20 clip from the field and also collected 14 rebounds.
An supplied 13 points and 6 rebounds. Lee Junghyun supplied 13 points as well, alongside 7 assists. Lee Seonghyun and Ha Yungi came through with solid contributions as they chipped in 8 points apiece.
Turning point
China could've easily thrown in the towel when they trailed by 19 but Cheng Shuaipeng and the rest of the team simply refused to do so, answering Hyunjung with a trey of his own with less than four minutes to spare.
Liao Sanning, Hu Mingxuan, Gao Shiyan, and Zhang then came in to help, and together they'd create a 13-0 run to chop the gap to just six, 77-71, with 1:30 to go, setting up the tight affair between the bitter foes.
Stats don't lie
The Chinese actually won the boards, 46-35, and even committed fewer turnovers (12-14) but shooting spelled the difference as they shot just 38.8-percent. The Koreans, for their part, shot 45.3-percent, including 14 threes.
Bottomline
With the escape, Korea joined Japan as the early winners in Group B. The latter were the first to get on board in their pool following a masterful 90-64 victory over Chinese Taipei in Kobe earlier in the night.
They said
"We actually had very limited time to prepare for the window. But we focused on defense, and it worked really, really well. But in the fourth quarter, we had some bad points on offense and defense. But we'll do better in the next game in Korea. " - Chun Heechul, Head Coach, Korea
"It's a win, so I want to shout-out to all my teammates and the coaches. As he mentioned, we had a short preparation, but we did a pretty good job. I think as Coach said, we could've won easier, but we made some dumb turnovers during the fourth quarter, so we need to fix that. We have a quick turnaround on Monday in Korea, so we're gonna prepare for that." - Lee Hyunjung, Forward, Korea
"It's a pity that we lost this game at home. It's our first FIBA window game, and the first game to prepare for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games. We lost it. The situation has become tougher for us. Three days later we're gonna play them again. Before the game, like I said, no two games are exactly the same. Just because you beat them in the Asia Cup doesn't mean that you can beat them here. We didn't execute the game plan today, we played with no focus. That's why we lost the game ... We need to play better." - Guo Shiqiang, Head Coach, China
"Korea deserved this win more than us. They prepared better than us and they fought their ass off more than we did. We didn't play well today and we didn't stop their three-point shot - we didn't shut down their threes. We didn't talk when we needed to switch. We need to play better against them on the road." - Liao Sanning, Guard, China
FIBA