FIBA Asia Cup: Iran – Japan in Finals today

The FIBA Asia Cup finals are set and not surprisingly it’s a rematch of the last game of the qualifying round between Iran and host Japan. In the first contest, Iran came out on top 71-65.

Japan – Qatar 73-66
In yesterday’s semi-finals Qatar got out to a small lead after the first quarter. The teams played evenly through the first six minutes of the of the second quarter and were tied at 19 with 3:46 to play in the half. Bt the time the teams were heading into the locker room, Japan held at 30-19 lead. Through the third Qatar could get no closer than six, but went into the final period down by 12. They outscored Japan 27-22 in the final quarter, but ended up on the short end of a 73-66 final score.

Kosuke Takeuchi led the hosts with 18 points and nine rebounds, while Takatoshi Furukawa added 15 points. Mohd Yousuf Mohmmed paced Qatar with 22 points and seven rebounds, and Erfan Ali Saeed contributed 15 points and 13 rebounds in the loss.

Iran – Philippines 77-60
This semi-final contest was shaping up to potentially be a fight to the last tick on the clock as the two teams battled to a 30-30 tie at the half. Iran stormed out of the gates to start the third quarter and ran off eight-straight points. Qatar was able to narrow the margin to three, but ended up six-down going into the last 10 minutes.

Iran tallied the first nine of the final block to extend their advantage to 15 and assure themselves a spot in the finals against the hosts on Saturday.

Iran got 14 points from Hamed Afagh Eslamieh, 13 each from Mohammad Jafarabadi and Asghar Kardoustpoustinsaraei. The Philippines got 13 apiece from Lewis Tenorio and Jared Dillinger.

Results of the 5/8 games:
Chinese Taipei – Uzbekistan 86-70
China – Lebanon 78-63

Sept. 22 Schedule:
7/8 Place Game
09:00 Uzbekistan – Lebanon (73-84)

5/6 Place Game
11:30 Chinese Taipei – China (63-67)

3/4 Place Game
14:00 Philippines – Qatar

Championship Game
16:30 I.R. Iran – Japam