Japan, Australia, China and Iran continued with their winning ways even as Korea displayed their all-round performance in no uncertain terms on way to a 90-61 win against hosts India in the FIBA Under-18 Asia Cup encounter at the Veer Savarkar Stadium at Ahmedabad on Sunday.
Korea dominated the first quarter with a 15-point lead but saw India’s Arman bucketing from all angles as he scored 20 individual points in India’s tally of 31 at half-time while Korea had scored 54.
China downed Qatar 118-66
The 3rd quarter had Korea stretch the lead to 30 points before the hosts scored 11 points in the 4th and Korea could not score for 6 minutes in the quarter as Rathee, Mishra, Shenoi and Piyush scoring
India’s brief fightback was thwarted by the spirited display by the Korean players for whom Eom Jih, Park T J and Yoon J H caught the tiring Indians wanting in defence to emerge winners. Eom Jih 17 Yoon J H 14 Park T J 12 Baek and Eom Sung with 9 apiece were the scorers for Korea while Arman 25 Tomer 14 did the scoring for India.
Iran thrashed Sri Lanka 110-42
Japan won their second consecutive game to be in contention for a direct quarter-final spot as they defeated Kazakhstan 81-45 with a high 41% shooting against 25% by the losing team.
Japan led right through and crossed over at 44-21 with MacMillan 16, Kaito Nakamura 10, Eishin Konno 12, and Benedict 12 being the main scorers.
Kazakhstan were served well by Darim Sultanov with 15 and Sayan Mamutov 14 points.
New Zealand cruised to a 86-42 win over Bahrain
Kazakhstan have lost both their games and play India on Tuesday with the winner qualifying for the last 16 and the loser being knocked out of the Championship
China and Iran also confirmed their berths in the quarterfinal with seconds successive wins in as many matches at the expense of Qatar and Sri Lanka, who are virtually left with no chance of making it to the next phase
While China downed Qatar 118-66, Iran outscored Sri Lanka 110-42.
In another matches, defending champions Australia continued with their winning ways as they romped to a comfortable 107-69 win over Philippines.
Chinese Taipei defeated Thailand 110-62
Chinese Taipei defeated Thailand 110-62, while New Zealand cruised to a 86-42 win over Bahrain and Syria defeated Lebanon 72-64.
Results: South Korea 90 (Eom Jih 17, Yoon J H 14, Park T J 12, Baek 9, Eom Sung 9) beat India 61 (Arman 25, Tomer 14).