JPN - Battling Japan stun Lebanon

DOHA (Asian Games) - Takehiko Orimo scored 23 points as Japan upset Lebanon 78-67 in Group F of the Asian Games basketball competition, while China and Chinese Taipei also secured victories on Monday.

The 2006 FIBA World Championship hosts pulled ahead of the Lebanese by 10 points in the first quarter and although Lebanon used a 13-2 run to lead 31-30, the Japanese led 41-36 going into the locker-rooms.

Kimikazu Suzuki's team then extended their lead to 15 points late in the third period and led 74-59, before Shinsuke Kashiwagi was ejected from the game for a flagrant foul with two minutes remaining.

"Lebanon is a strong team in Asia. But we are a strong team too, and we believed we could beat them. The key to the victory was the tough defense," said Kosuke Takeuchi, who added 14 points and nine rebounds for Japan.

"Our goal here is to win the championship." He added.

Japan were strong in defense throughout the game, holding Lebanon to just 32% shooting (24 of 76), despite missing veteran Eric McArthur (broken
finger) and Takuma Watanabe (family problems), who are both back in Japan.

Joseph Vogel scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds but the Lebanese center made just nine of 28 field goal attempts, including four of 15 from beyond the three-point stripe.

While Lebanon dropped to 1-1 in Group F, Japan improved to 2-0 to pull even with China, who are group leaders on point difference after registering a 91-68 victory against Uzbekistan.

Yi Jianlian led the way for the Chinese with 21 points and eight rebounds, while Sun Yue came off the bench to add 22 and reserve Mo Ke added 16.

Coach Jonas Kazlauskas opted to keep Wang Zhi Zhi on the bench for most of the game, as he scored just three points in six minutes.

"We played this game to win. But part of my plan also was to play less Liu Wei, Yi Jialian and Wang Zhi Zhi. It happened that we played Yi more than we wanted to but I'm happy with some of the players from the bench," Kazlauskas said.

Aleksandr Kozlov was the game's leading scorer with 24 points for Uzbekistan, who have now lost both of their group games.

The Uzbeks trailed 30-21 after the first period and China used a 10-0 run to push the advantage to 17 points - 44-27. Uzbekistan battled back to 65-55 down with eight minutes remaining, but China used a 13-0 burst to secure a comfortable win.

The day's first game saw a tight affair as Chinese Taipei beat Kazakhstan 81-79 thanks to Chen Hsin An's three free throws in the final 32 seconds.

Taipei led 17-5 in the first quarter but the Kazakhs used an 8-0 spurt to close to 21-17. The eastern Asians led 78-73 with 1:50 remaining but Yegor Biryulin's three-pointer with 45 seconds left gave Uzbekistan its only lead at 79-78.

Chen made one of two free throws with 32 seconds remaining and then Tien Lei blocked Dmitriy Korovnikov's attempt with 11 seconds to play and Chen grabbed the rebound and was fouled.

He stepped to the free throw line and made both shots for an 81-79 lead and Anton Ponomarev's desperate three-point attempt at the buzzer was off the mark.
Taipei are now 1-1 while Kazakhstan fell to 0-2.

The men's tournament continues on Tuesday with Group E action as Iran face Bahrain, South Korea play Syria and hosts Qatar take on Jordan.

PA Sport