Japanese players celebrate their win over Qatar in the FIBA Asia Championship in Changsha yesterday.
FIBA
Changsha, China
Defending champions Iran, Japan, hosts China and the Philippines are still in the hunt for the title and direct qualification for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics after winning their respective quarter-finals yesterday.
Iran squared off against Korea in the first Last Eight meeting of the day and had a blistering start before prevailing, 75-62.
With veterans Yuta Tabuse and Takatoshi Furukawa playing heavy minutes and weighing in with key contributions, Japan led from start to finish in their 81-74 triumph over Qatar.
China turned on the style and rolled to a 104-58 triumph over India, with Yi Jianlian pouring in 18 of his 21 points in the first half.
Behind the powerhouse combination of point guard Jayson Castro and big man Andray Blatche, the Filipinos won, 82-70.
China will face Iran in today’s first Semi-Final and Japan will go up against the Philippines in the second.
Iran didn’t waste much time in establishing their superiority in their encounter against Korea, building a 15-point lead by the end of the first quarter and going up by as many as 23 points.
The starting frontline of Hamed Haddadi and Oshin Sahakian did much of the damage for the Iranians, combining for 30 points and 21 rebounds, while starting shooting guard Hamed Afagh added 11 points and hit three three-pointers.
Haddadi finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds.
In Japan’s win, Tabuse started and logged nearly 37 minutes, scoring a dozen points and handing out six assists.
Furukawa had a team-high 22 point performance that included four three-pointers, while big man Joji Takeuchi scored 15 points and grabbing eight rebounds.
Qatar’s star player Trey Johnson had a relatively quiet game, finishing with 16 points on 5-of-11 field goal shooting. He also had 3 turnovers. Hassan Mohamed and Mohammed Yousef added 13 and 12 points respectively for the Qataris who just couldn’t get much going throughout the contest.
Japan head coach Kenji Hasegawa’s side got their first double-digit lead of the game at the 2:22 mark of the first period when Furukawa hit his second three-pointer. He made three attempts from beyond the arc in the first quarter alone, helping Japan jump out to a commanding 28-13 advantage and never relinquishing the lead.
Japan’s defence, speed and shooting gave Qatar fits all game long. Team Hayabusa forced 13 turnovers from their Gulf opponents and limited Qatar to just 41.8 percent shooting. In contrast, Japan coughed the ball up only 10 times and shot 48.2 percent. Japan were also better in transition, scoring six fastbreak points and not allowing a single point in transition from Qatar.
In China’s win, India led 7-4 three minutes into the game after a basket from Amritpal Singh but the tournament hosts then took over.
Zhou Peng and Yi hit jumpers to start a 15-4 run that put the Chinese in command for good.
