AHMEDABAD (India) - Yoon Jihoon steered Korea to a pulsating 67-64 come-from-behind victory over Japan on Tuesday night to advance to the FIBA U18 Asia Cup Quarter-Finals at the Veer Savarkar Indoor Stadium.
The 17-year-old guard played the entirety of the match and finished with 27 points, including 9 in the deciding chapter alone to spearhead the rally after finding themselves staring at a 57-52 deficit with 6:26 to spare.
He scored the team's last 4 points, all of which he garnered from the free throw line to cap off a mini 6-0 spurt to finish the bout, eventually dealing one of their long-time East Asian rivals yet another heartbreak.
They've now beaten the Japanese for a fourth straight time in U18 play but this particular win, more importantly, allowed the Koreans to clinch the no. 1 spot in Group D with an immaculate 3-0 win-loss record.
And so, they're marching on the Quarter-Finals outright, joining the other top teams of the other pools, namely defending champions Australia, another Oceania powerhouse New Zealand, and 11-time winners China.
The quartet will now wait for the Qualification to Quarter-Finals to determine their foes. The Final Phase will commence with the said stage this Thursday, August 20, with another quadruple-header offering.
This continued Korea's lengthy streak of advancing to the knockout stages and that's massive thanks to Yoon's steadiness when the going got tough, although it wasn't totally him that made the triumph possible.
Coming through with significant contributions, particularly in the fourth quarter, were Eom Jihoo and Heo Geonwoo, who finished with 9 and 7 points, respectively, with the latter adding 5 boards.
The tandem were crucial in dissipating the 5-point deficit. Eom leaned on his inside play, and Heo would showcase his nerves of steel when he went 3-for-3 from the foul line for the 59-58 lead with 3:24 left.
And just as when Team Japan seemed to have it all figured out when they took the 64-61 lead with 81 seconds remaining, Eom hit a jumper, triggering the aforementioned run to close the game out strongly.
Yoon Jiwon was the only other player in double digits for Korea with 12 points and 8 rebounds.
Put to naught by the loss, on the other hand, were the efforts of Aru Takahashi. He finished with 19 points behind a 5-of-8 clip from deep, including 3 to start the fourth that gave them the lead. He also had 8 rebounds.
Kenichiro Benedict had 16 points and 8 rebounds while Alex McMillian added 11 points and 15 rebounds for Japan, who committed errors so costly in the endgame that enabled Yoon & Co. to turn things around.
McMillian himself was actually responsible for giving his side the 3-point lead but got called for a foul on Yoon with 35.0 seconds left, and Korea would take the lead for good as the latter calmly hit his free throws.
Japan settled for a no. 2 finish in the group with a 2-1 record following the disappointing loss, and will have to go through the Qualification to Quarter-Finals if they are to return to the Quarter-Finals.
*This article will be updated.