By Sports Reporter/Doha

Defending champions China, South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Iran entered the semi-finals of the 23rd FIBA Asia Under-18 Basketball Championship yesterday at the Gharafa Indoor Hall.
Hosts Qatar registered their second victory of the championship when they defeated Kuwait 84-75 in the 9-12 placing match. Abdulrahman Sadd was once again in his elements as he set the pace for the hosts with a game-high 36 points with 17 rebounds while Abdel Abdelrahman Yehia chipped in with 19 points.
Faraj Abdullah was the top-scorer for Kuwait with 31 points. Qatar will next meet Jordan, who defeated Hong Kong 97-64, in  the 9-10 placing match today.
However, the big question at the end of Chinese Taipei’s 90-86 win over Philippines in the third quarter-final was: Was there a need for the 24-second shot-clock in the game? For, such was the pace of the game that neither team took more than 16 seconds on the clock to take their attempts—and to their own satisfaction also converted—in might what go down in FIBA Asia U-18 Championship history as one of the highest scoring contests with both teams battling it out on equal footing.
In the end, it became more of who missed the final attempt in the game. That inglorious credit unfortunately went to Kobe Paras, who otherwise was the lynchpin of the Batang Gilas offense machine.
Lin Ming-Yi, on the other hand, became an instant hero with his fourth three-pointer success in nine attempts from almost the centre-line which put Taipei ahead with six seconds left on the clock. Incidentally, that was one of the very few attempts by either team that came when there was less than 10 seconds on the shot-clock. Till those moments, it was the fastest ever game seen in recent FIBA Asia U-18 history!
For the record, Tu Ssu-Han led Taipei with 23 points with Lee Kuan-Yi adding 17. Each youngster also collared six rebounds apiece. Mark Dyke had a fantastic night for the Batang Gilas, but unfortunately his personal tournament-high 26 points and half as many rebounds went in vain.
Taipei next play twice defending champions China in the semi-finals, who defeated Kazakhstan 106-53 in the earlier quarter-final.
There are two phases in every game twice defending gold medallists China played in the championship so far.
One is when everything in Fan Bin’s plans works to perfection. And the other is when the clock goes into sleep mode.
Fortunately for China, their opponents have failed to capitalize on the latter factor when the opportunity beckons and let China rule the roost all along.
China, who are aiming for a hat-trick of titles, left nothing to chance or doubt right from the word go. Zhou Qi was the most conspicuous player—not just by reputation but by performance as well—as the 217cm youngster went about his business with sharp focus.
Qi’s seven-point produce powered China into control on the scoreboard at the end of the first quarter before he powered an 11-0 run at the start of the second period which brought a certain kind of terminality to the proceedings. Qi went on to finish with 16 points.
Iran, twice champions and reigning bronze medallists, completed the semi-final lineup with yet another characteristically comprehensive win—their sixth in as many games in the competition—against minnows Malaysia with a 92-36 result.
A 15-0 run that cut across the half-time break powered South Korea to their third successive semi-finals entry in championship at the expense of traditional rivals Japan 90-61.
Down 31-34, and having fallen behind by as many as 11 points at one stage in the second quarter, Korea closed the game 36-34 ahead. Jeon Hyunwoo converted a free-throw followed by Song Kyochang drive in the lane to bring Korea closer and Byeon Junhyeong’s jumper closed the half for Korea with only their third lead in the game.