FIBA Asia – Asia to London? Eight remain, two undefeated

WUHAN (FIBA Asia Championship) – The Quarter-Final lineup for the 2011 FIBA Asia Championship is set, and eight teams will battle it out for one place at the London Olympics and two more at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament this weekend.

As expected, Iran and China are the only two undefeated teams, and neither has been seriously challenged to this point. Iran will play a struggling Jordan team in the Quarter Finals, and China will be very confident going against Lebanon, who have not been able to put four quarters together all week.

While Korea fell to Iran by 17 points, they showed enough to suggest they could trouble the two Asian powers if their shooting game is firing. First though, they must hope star point guard Yang Donggeun’s ankle injury is not serious, and then overcome Japan in what could be the pick of the Quarter Finals.

Japan lost no friends with their fighting loss to China in the final group game, and will enter their Quarter Final with Korea confident they can progress to the Semi-Finals. “To get to the top four you have to go through somebody, and it’s time for us to stand up to Korea and get that done,” coach Tom Wisman said.

He also was proud of his team’s effort against China, especially as star centre Joji Takeuchi went down injured after just nine minutes on court. “I thought we played better (than against the Philippines). We played well enough for it to be respectable,” Wisman said. “Our finishing let us down but the effort was there, and we can regroup from this and look forward to the challenge with Korea.”

The Philippines were given a stern reminder that good form can be fleeting in the first half of their game against Syria, falling behind by 10 points. The emotional ‘Smart Gilas’ refocused and unleashed a devastating 52-20 second half to catapult themselves into Friday’s clash with Chinese Taipei.

The men from Taipei warmed themselves up for the Quarter Finals with a 109-62 thrashing of Malaysia. Though they troubled both Iran and Korea at times in their group games, only four quarters of Taipei’s best will be good enough to overcome the confident Philippines.

If all goes as expected, the victor of that game will face the daunting task of two-time defending champion Iran in the Semi-Finals. If China can account for Lebanon they will host East Asia rivals Korea or Japan.

FIBA