FUKUOKA (Japan) – Fancied quartet China, Japan, Korea, Chinese Taipei all did what was expected of them in the FIBA U18 Asia Cup 2026 EABA Qualifiers booking their anticipated tickets to qualify for the FIBA U18 Asia Cup 2026 scheduled to be played in Ahmedabad (India) from Aug 13-23, 2026.
The foursome who between them have cornered the majority of medals in the FIBA U18 Asia Cup over the past 27 editions of the competition earned themselves the right to represent their FIBA Asia Sub-Zone – in this instance from East Asia – but it was not without drama.
Chinese Taipei couldn’t break through in any of the other games but defeated Hong Kong China to clear their qualifying path. The latter lost all their four games to bow out of the race without a win.
The other three played out a delightful three-way win-loss roulette among themselves.
China, who have the record for highest number of 11 titles and highest number of 22 medals in the history of the event were in their form to beat Korea 92-80, but on the final day came a cropper against hosts Japan and lost 56-63
Korea, who after China and the Philippines have the highest number of medals – 16 – including four titles had defeated Japan 83-69 before their loss to China in the competition.
All three finished with an identical win-loss (3-1) record and number of points (7), but in the three-way tie-breaker that was applied China emerged on top with a point difference of +5 followed by Korea (+2) and Japan (-7).
Click here for complete results, box scores, and stats of FIBA U18 Asia Cup 2026 EABA Qualifiers.
The EABA quartet thus joined Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand and Kazakhstan as the teams to qualify for the biennial FIBA’s flagship event for youth National Teams in Asia. India who are preparing to host the event for the first time in more than two decades are qualified automatically as hosts.
Eight more teams will come through the Qualifiers from other FIBA Asia Sub-Zones over the next few weeks.
The South East Asian Basketball Association (SEABA) U18 Qualifiers is scheduled to be played in Krabi (Thailand) from June 10-14, 2026 to qualify two teams.
Teams in the West Asia Basketball Association are scheduled to play the WABA U18 Qualifiers in Amman (Jordan) from July 7-11 to identify three teams to qualify, while Gulf Basketball Association will be involved in their qualifying event from July 17-22 in Doha (Qatar), from where three teams will make it to the 2026 FIBA U18 Asia Cup.
FIBA Asia U18 Asia Cup 2026 EABA Qualifiers – Final Rankings |
|
|
Rank | Team | W/L |
1 | China | 3/1 |
2 | Korea | 3/1 |
3 | Japan | 3/1 |
4 | Chinese Taipei | 1/3 |
5 | Hong Kong China | 0/4 |
FIBA