Qatar beat Jordan to stay unbeaten in Asian C’ship

IANS/Manila

Qatar, who led by only four points by halftime, broke away from a tight game in the third quarter and never looked back to beat reigning runner-up Jordan, reports Xinhua.

Jarvis Hayes, the former NBA swingman, led in scoring with 15 points while Yaseen Musa added 14, along with seven rebounds and three assists.

Qatar, who now improved to 3-0, will play hosts Philippines today.

Philippines bounced back from their heartbreaking defeat to Chinese Taipei in their last group match in preliminary round with a 90-71 win over Japan riding on impressive performances by Marcus Douthit and Jeffrei Chan who scored 19 and 16 points each.

Title-favourites Iran continued to assert their dominance defeating India 102-58.

Hamed Afagh led five Iran players in double-figures with 16 points. Samad Nikkhah Bahrami and former NBA centre Hamed Haddadi posted 15 and 12 points, respectively.

The two-time Asian champion scored 14 triples, which is their best performance in the tournament.

Vishesh Bhriguvanshi was the top-scorer for the Indian team with 15 points. The opening victory in the second round gave Iran the leading place in Group F, which also has China, South Korea, Bahrain and Kazakhstan.

Iran will continue with its campaign against Bahrain, while India will battle defending champion China today.

China trumped Kazakhstan 73-67 Peng Zhou top-scoring for the eventual winners with 17 points. Fang Yu Zhu scored 15 while Zhi Zhi Wang pitched in with 12.

For Kazakhstan, Jerry Johnson scored the most with 13 points.

In the other matches, Thailand and Taiwan won their matches against Malaysia and Hong Kong respectively. While Anasawee Klaewnarong led Thailand with 16 points over Malaysia, five Taiwanese players made it to double figures to down Hong Kong.

Shih-Chieh Chen was the topscorer for Taiwan with 13 points, while Lei Tien scored 12. Douglas Creighton and Cheng-Ju Lu scored 11 points each while Chin-Min Yang pitched in with 10.