FIBA Asia - China and Japan triumph

DOHA (Asian Games) - Asian champions China and Japan both collected comfortable victories on Wednesday to set up a showdown of undefeated teams for top billing in Group F of the 15th Asian Games.

Yi Jianlian scored 28 points and grabbed nine rebounds in 23 minutes as China trounced Chinese Taipei 101-65 to improve to 3-0.

Taipei trailed only 24-23 after the first period, but China used a 19-0 run to pull ahead 45-25 and never looked back. They led by as many as 40 points in the fourth quarter in shooting 63% (40 of 64) from the field in the game.

"I explained to the guys that there was enough sitting," said China coach Jonas Kazlauskas, who rested his starters for most of the first two wins.

"I saw many good things out there tonight. We started playing better defence. Yi had his second good game in a row. And his team-mates used him very well too."

Five other Chinese players scored in double figures with Zhu Fangyu leading the way with 18 points. Hu Xuefeng added 16 points off Kazlauskas' bench.

Chen Hsin An and Lin Chih Chien each scored 14 points for Chinese Taipei, who dropped to 1-2 after shooting just 38% (22 of 58) from the floor.

Kazlauskas praised his team's next opponents Japan, adding: "It looks like they're playing really well. I saw some good things from them. And we had trouble against them when we played in Italy before the 2006 World Championship."

Japan cruised to a 75-56 victory against Uzbekistan thanks to 17 points from sharp-shooter Takehiko Orimo. Kosuke Takeuchi added 15 points and 12 rebounds for the Japanese.

Uzbekistan led 13-9 early on but Japan used an 11-3 run to open up a 20-16 first-quarter lead. The advantage was 41-27 at half-time but the Uzbeks began climbing back into the game, pulling to within 54-50 midway through the third quarter.

But Orimo buried back-to-back long jumpers and a three-pointer to make it a 63-51 with 4:31 remaining.

Kimikazu Suzuki's team out-rebounded Uzbekistan 45-33 and held them to 31% (22 of 71) shooting, but the coach claimed his team need to play better to
beat China, especially rebounding the ball.

"We are just challengers. We've played very well on offense. Our defence is so-so. But our rebounds are kind of weak," said Suzuki.

"If we can keep passing to the open man, then maybe we have a chance against China. We are small. If we can hit some tough shots, maybe it would be possible to win because our rebound is weak. If we make our shots, we don't need rebounders."

Mikhail Shafenikov scored 21 points and Vyacheslav Belokurov added 18 in a losing cause for Uzbekistan, who are 0-3.

Meanwhile, Anton Ponomarev collected 27 points and 16 rebounds as Kazakhstan sprung a surprise to beat Lebanon 80-75. Rustam Yargaliyev added 18 points off the bench as both teams moved to 1-2 in the group and find themselves in a fight for a spot in the quarter-finals.

"Both teams really tried hard to win this game. This victory gives us a new chance to continue our fight to make the quarter-finals," said Yevgeniy Issakov, who added seven points and seven rebounds.

"I know that we can play much, much better."

Kazakhstan led by 11 points, 63-52, with two minutes left in the third period.

Lebanon fought back to within 70-69 on Fadi El Khatib's jumper with 3:41 remaining in the game.

Trailing 76-72, El Khatib missed a long three-point attempt with 56 seconds left. He then missed an inside attempt with 40 seconds remaining, allowing Kazakhstan to pull ahead 79-72.

Rony Fahed drained a three-pointer to make it 79-75 but El Khatib missed an inside basket with 15 seconds left and then was called for an offensive foul with 8.3 seconds to go, to give Kazakhstan the game.

El Khatib was very angry with the call and had to be restrained by security from going after Korean referee Kee Yong Kun after the game.

El Khatib led all the scorers with 34 points but he made just 38% (12 of 32) of his shots, while also grabbing 13 rebounds. Joseph Vogel chipped in with 15 points and 11 rebounds in a losing cause.

The men's tournament continues on Thursday with three Group E games. Bahrain play Syria in a battle of the two 0-3 teams. Jordan take on South Korea as one team will improve to 3-1 and the other will even their record at 2-2. And the undefeated hosts Qatar (3-0) play the final game of the night against 2-1 Iran.

PA Sport