Overtime Games Dominate the U18 Asian Championships

The schedule couldn’t have been drawn up any better in the U18 Asian Championships for Men yesterday with the top two teams in both Groups facing off on the last day before the quarterfinal matches were set. Both China and Korea came into their Group E matchup with perfect 4-0 records along with Iran in Group F, who squared up with Chinese Taipei at 3-1. As expected, both games were tough-fought battles, both ending regulation tied and needing an extra frame to determine a winner. Chinese Taipei came out with a one-point victory over Iran giving Group F three squads with 4-1 records, and China outlasted Korea 107-102 in a game that saw Korea toss up a combined 126 total shots and blow a 15-point, third quarter lead.

Chinese Taipei – Iran 78-77 OT
According to the post-game stat chart, Iran held the lead in this battle of the unbeatens for 32:09 seconds as compared to the 3:06 that the squad from Chinese Taipei held it. Fortunately, the only time it matters is when the final buzzer sounds and even though it took an extra five-minute frame to do it, the Chinese Taipei men walked away with a 78-77 win and the second seed out of Group E going into the quarterfinals, while Iran kept the number one seed.
The first quarter saw Iran run off nine unanswered points mid-way through the frame to build an eight point margin, 16-8. Chinese Taipei capitalized on turnovers and missed free throws by the Iranians to cut the margin to two points at the end of the first quarter, 24-22.
In the second quarter Chinese Taipei tied the score at 26 on two Hung-han Huang free throws, but neither team would score again for nearly two minutes before they traded baskets in a 10 second window and then saw another nearly two minutes run off before a three by Vahid Dalirzahan gave Iran the lead back. The squads traded baskets for a couple minutes before Chinese Taipei when cold, opening the door for Iran. Over the last two minutes of the half they dropped in four of four from the charity stripe and hit a jumper to go into the locker room with a six-point advantage 39-33.
Yu-wei Li cut the margin in half with a three-pointer, but Iran kept the pressure on and went on a 10-3 run to extend their lead to 10 points with 4:26 to play in the third frame. Chia-chun Wu knocked down a triple off an offensive rebound by Kuan-hsuan Lu and Chia-ui Lee dropped in a two-footer that finished off a series that started with a Shih-en Fan steal that set up a Wu jumper resulting in a Lee offensive rebound, all of which cut the margin to five with 3:14 to play in the quarter. Both teams battled with missed shots and turnovers for the next few minutes before Dalirzahan hit two for Iran and then Lee sank a three for Taipei. At the end of the third the margin was back to six, 55-49, in Iran’s favor.
Dalirzahan bumped the lead to eight with a jumper four seconds into the fourth quarter, but Li got those back with two of his own. The teams traded baskets keeping the margin between three and six points until Lee hit a three-pointer with 6:20 to reduce Iran’s advantage to two points. Chinese Taipei pulled even first time in nearly two quarters when Lee knotted the score at 63 with 5:49 left to play. Neither team could find the bottom of the basket for nearly three minutes until Chiu sank a three, giving Chinese Taipei their first advantage late in the first quarter. Hossein Rahmati’s jumper with 2:44 to play was followed by a steal off the press and a layup by Sajjad Mashayekhi to give Iran a one point advantage with 2:41. Li hit one of two free throws at 1:51 to go to tie the score at 67. Iran called a timeout and off the inbounds play Rahmati was fouled by Fan, but he missed two free throws to keep the score knotted at 67. Lee gave Chinese Taipei the lead back with 49 seconds left on a jumper. Dalirzahan was sent to the line for two free throws with 36 ticks left on the clock when he was fouled by Fan on the next trip down the court. Dropping in both tied the score back up at 69. Both teams took a timeout to plan the last half minute of the contest, but Wu’s three-pointer at the buzzer missed sending them into a five-minute overtime period tied at 69.
Fan opened the OT period with by picking Saleh Foroutan Nik of the ball, dumping it to Lin for a three that missed, but the rebound was hauled in by Lee, who kicked it back to Wu for another three, this one finding the cords and giving Taipei a 72-69 advantage. Mashayekhi hit consecutive shots to give Iran the lead back 73-72 with 3:44 to play. Dalirzahan grabbed a missed deuce by Foroutan Nik, kicked the ball out to Rahmati, who sank a jumper and extended the lead to three, 75-72. Wu sank one of two free throws to cut the lead to two, then Mashayekhi gave Iran a four point advantage again with 2:09 left after he dropped in two free throws. Li stole a bad pass from Foroutan Nik and set up Wu for two and a 77-75 score with 1:28 to play. Rahmati fouled Lee, who made one of two free throws, bringing the score to 77-76 with 57 seconds to play. Mashayekhi missed a jumper, Wu got the rebound, passed to Li, who missed a three-pointer that was hauled in by Foroutan Nik. Iran set up for a final shot and worked the clock down to five seconds and had Mashayekhi shot blocked, picked up by Li, passed ahead to Lee, who dropped in a layup to win by one as the buzzer sounded. Lee lead the Chinese Taipei squad with 22 points, Wu added 16, and Li contributed 11. Dalirzahan led the Iranians with 22 points, Rahmati added 18 point and 11 rebounds, Mashayekhi scored 13 points, and Foroutan Nik scored eight points and grabbed 16 rebounds in the losing effort.

China – Korea 107-102 OT
Both China and Korea had spots locked up in the quarterfinals, but this game would determine their seeds and who they’d match up with in the first game. Both came in with 4-0 records. The game saw numerous wide lead swings with China building a 12-point margin in the first and Korea getting up as much as 15-points in the third.
After China’s Shang Gao and Korea’s Seungook Choi traded three-pointers early in the opening frame, China ran off 10 unanswered points to build an early 12-point margin. Korea countered the Chinese run with 12-1 streak of their own to end the first quarter only down by one, 20-19.
The squads traded baskets for the better part of the second quarter and tied things up at 30 when Zhelin Wang, China’s 2.15m center, hit a jumper with 3:22 to play in the half. From there, Korea outscored the Chinese 14-6, including an offensive rebound and dunk at the buzzer by Jonghyun Lee to take an eight-point advantage into the halftime break.
When the teams reconvened, Korea continued to build their margin to as much as 15 with 7:19 to play, 55-40. China found some fire to turn things around when Gao was fouled on a basket and sank the free throw to cut the margin to 12 with 7:12 left in 3rd. Shortly after a technical was called sending Gao back to the line for two more free throws, which he made, further cutting the lead to 10. Li dropped a three with 1:30 to play in the quarter to reduce the Korean advantage to five. A loose ball foul on Sangjae Kang send Huaibo Dai to the charity stripe, he made his two shots and completed was was essentially a five-point play, cutting the margin to three. Wang split two free throws with 35 ticks on the 3rd quarter clock to bring the score to 64-62. Gao scored with one second left, got fouled and converted to close the deal on the three-point play and giving China a one-point lead. On the play China’s Dai got rung up with a technical, which gave Gibeom Cheon two free throws at the other end of the court. After sinking both Korea grabbed the lead back going into the final stance, 66-65.
The lead exchanged hands a number of times in the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, but with 5:37 to play Wang hit a jumper that would be the start to an offensive run by China. Over the next four minutes they built eight point margin, but with only 1:23 to play and the score 88-80 in China’s favor, Korea’s S. Choi grabbed an offensive rebound and was fouled by Gao. Choi split his free throws, but Luo was called for a technical, sending Cheon to the line for two shot and giving the Koreans the ball back. Cheon split his free throws, but Choi got the rebound on the second shot and put it back in, cutting the lead to four with 1:03 to play. Wang missed two free throws with 51 seconds to play and Choi hit a deuce to bring the score to 88-86 with 35 seconds left. China called a timeout, worked the clock to get a shot as late as possible, but Wang missed it, Choi got the rebound, took it end-to-end and sank a shot with time running out to send the game into overtime, tied at 88.
During the first 2:48 of the OT period the teams exchanged baskets, but China grabbed the lead for good on a Jinmeng Yang jumper. Kang got Korea to within one with two free throws with 1:46 left, but a Dai dunk on the other end of the court brought the lead back to three and jumpers by Yang and Luo extended the advantage to seven with 33 seconds to play. Cheon knocked down a three to cut to to four with 25 seconds left, but it was too little, too late and China walked away with an unblemished record heading into Friday’s quarterfinal round against Saudi Arabia, seeded fourth in Group F. Korea will play the Philippines, seeded third in Group F. Wang contributed an impressive 33 points and 15 rebounds in the win, while teammates Gao contributed 26 points (9 of 11 from the free throw line), and Luo added 21. Korea got 21 from Cheon, 19 from Lee, 16 from Kang, and 15 each from J. Choi and S. Choi. The game also saw six players foul out, four Koreans, including both Chois and Lee and two Chinese, including Wang.
During the contest Korea attempted 92 field goals, 24 three-pointers (5/24 21%) and 68 (30/68 38%) two-pointers, as well as 34 (27/34 79%) free throws, for a total of 126 shots.

Quarterfinal line-up
QF1: (F2) Ch. Taipei Vs. (E3) Japan
QF2: (E1) China Vs. (F4) Saudi Arabia
QF3: (E2) Korea Vs. (F3) Philippines
QF4: (E4) Lebanon Vs. (F1) Iran