ULAANBAATAR (Mongolia) - Iran and Korea will duke it out for a fifth-place finish in the FIBA U16 Asia Cup after disposing of their respective opponents in the Classification 5-8 games, Saturday at the MBank Arena.
The young Team Melli dealt Bahrain a sound 95-62 beating to open the consolation round before the one-time gold medalists escaped Chinese Taipei by way of a 79-74 decision, thus setting up the bout for fifth.
Game time is on Sunday at 14:00 local time.
Iran leaned on a balanced attack to crush their GBA counterparts, with Yasin Morovat Halabi showing the way with a game-high 23 points and 9 rebounds. Bardiya Khosravi delivered 16 points and 7 rebounds.
Alireza Rashidi produced 13 points. Amir Reza Azari had 12 points while Safa Behnia and Amir Ali Raeisi chipped in 10 points apiece as the quartet were crucial in the WABA representatives' second-quarter breakaway.
Leading the Bahrainis were Hassan Abdulkadir with 20 points and 13 rebounds, with Mohamed Adel Abdullah backing him up with 16 points and Hussain Fuad adding 10 as they continued to miss Somto Patrick.
The other match saw Team Korea show poise in the endgame after encountering a threat from their rivals in the all-East Asian affair, when the latter trimmed a 77-61 lead to just three, 77-74, with less than 40 seconds left.
Park Taejoon, though, came through with a crucial stop when he intercepted Chen Guan-Jie's pass with 11.5 seconds to go, and Lee Seunghyeon went on to ice the game with a perfect trip to the line shortly after.
Park Beomyeun top-scored for the Koreans with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Lee tallied 19 points and 13 rebounds, while Taejoon nearly had a double-double of his own with 9 points and 9 assists, along with 4 steals.
Wasted by the loss was the 20-point, 10-rebound effort of Wang I-Le for Chinese Taipei. Chen had 15 points and 5 rebounds while Chang Cheng-Yeh added 12 points and 10 rebounds in the comeback that fell short.
Chinese Taipei and Bahrain will figure in a bout for seventh place on Sunday as well at 11:30, serving as the opening act of the week-long tournament's culminating gameday headlined by the Final set 19:00.
FIBA