ULAANBAATAR (Mongolia)- Australia took another step towards an unprecedented four-peat in FIBA U16 Asia Cup competitions beating Korea 98-70 in the Quarter-Finals of the FIBA U16 Asia Cup 2025 at the M Bank Arena on Friday.
The win while keeping the Crocs’ quest for a fourth successive triumph in the FIBA U16 Asia Cup also booked them a ticket to the FIBA U17 World Cup 2026, for an eighth successive appearance in the global competition.
Coming into the game, with an unbeaten record across all editions of the FIBA U16 Asia Cup, Australia were caught on the backfoot in the early flurry of action.
Coach Greg Vanderjagt needed some splendid support from his bench to help calm the nerves and put things on track. An all-round offense effort stopped things from getting out of hand too early as the Crocs pulled back from a 13-21 deficit to close the opening quarter with a confident effort.
That confidence kept the three-time reigning champions in good stead for the rest of the game to keep Korea at bay.
Luke Roland Paul, who came off the bench and played a significant role in that outburst led the scoring for the team with 21 points in 8/11 field shooting, along with eight rebounds. Alex Mabbott pulled 9 rebounds off the defense glass for a dozen rebounds to go with 10 points for a double-double.
Park Taejoon too had a double-double for Korea with his 17 points and 11 rebounds to go with Lee Seunghyeon’s game-high 25 points.
Australia now await the winners of the all-East Asian Quarter-Final encounter between two former FIBA U16 Asia Cup silver medallists Japan (2022) and Chinese Taipei (2015) slated for 1900 Hours on Friday. Korea will play the losers of that game in the Classification for the 5-8 places.
FIBA