Beirut to host Champions Cup; Tokyo to host re-christened FIBA Asia Cup
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: The FIBA Asia calendar of events for 2012 has been announced.
The calendar will tip off with the 23rd FIBA Asia Champions Cup, FIBA Asia’s premier event for club teams, to be hosted by Lebanon at Beirut from Jun 2 – 10, 2012.
Posted in fiba asia, stankovic cup
Taiwan lost to Jordan 85-70 but managed to beat Kazakhstan 73-67 in its last game of the 2010 FIBA Asia Stankovic tournament, finishing with a disappointing 7th place in Zhang Xuelei’s first international competition as Taiwan NT head coach.
Zhang took over Taiwan NT this year and led the team to finish 5th in a 7-team Jones Cup tournament in July in his debut.
To be fair, Zhang’s scorecard is incomplete because several key players, such as Wu Tai-hao, Tien Lei, Lin Chih-chieh, have been absent since Zhang took over to rest their injuries. Chen Hsin-an was not on the national team this year because he did not play in Taiwan at all this past season.
However, things are not looking good for Taiwan NT, which has been dominated by opponents in Beirut in the paint time and time again. Taiwan’s set play and defense has been questionable under Zhang.
Moreover, almost all of Taiwan’s major opponents in Asia, including Japan and the Philippines, are improving rapidly. Japan and the Philippines hire foreign coaches respectively. Iran and Lebanon have been consistent while China and South Korea are always dominant.
It’s unfortunate that Taiwan chose not to retain Korean coach Chung Kwon-suk, who led Taiwan to the 5th place in the latest Asian Championship. Chung’s stress on defense and his no-nonsense approach had helped the team grow a lot during his tenure. And Taiwanese young coaches has learned a lot from him as his assistants.
Barring player injuries, Zhang needs to quickly transform the team in a short time for the next Asian Championship.
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Story from Eurobasket.com:
Taiwan clinched the 7th spot at the 3rd FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup. In their last game the team overcame Kazakhstan 73:67 as the latter finished 8th.
Kazakhstan started more confident and enjoyed 17:8 in the opening tip. They increased to 21:12 after the first 10 minutes but could not keep the lead for good. Kazakhstan continued their push and had 30:19 after 15 minutes. Taiwan reduced the gap at the halftime as the board showed 39:33. The third period was decisive as Taiwan took 44:42 after the first 5 minutes in the third quarter. They kept 49:47 at the end of thirty minutes. Kazakhstan made the last spurt in the first minutes of the last period and had 58:57, but lost the game. Taiwan however won the rest of the quarter and celebrated the last win in Lebanon.
HUNG Chih-shan top-scored for the winners with 17 points and LU Cheng-ju nailed 13. CHEN Shih-nien netted 11, while Lee Hsueh-Lin (176-G-84) scored 10. Dmitriy Gavrilov (205-F-86) poured in 18 points in the losing effort, while Timur Sultanov (176-G-81), KAZANTSEV Sergey and Ruslan Gilyazutdinov (203-C-84) added 8 each.
Kazakhstan made 54 rebounds and Taiwan had 38. Kazakhstan made more points in the paint outscoring the opponents 40/28.
Taiwan: HUNG Chih-shan 17, LU Cheng-ju 13, CHEN Shih-nien 11, Lee Hsueh-Lin 10
Kazakhstan: Dmitriy Gavrilov 18, Timur Sultanov 8, KAZANTSEV Sergey 8, Ruslan Gilyazutdinov 8 (by Eurobasket News)
Story from FIBA Asia:
TPE/KAZ – Taipei rally to down Kazakhstan for seventh place
BEIRUT, Lebanon (3rd FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup): Chinese Taipei outscored Kazakhstan 14-9 in the last five minutes of the first half, and capped their rally with a 73-67 win to take the seventh position on Sunday.Lu Cheng-ju (white jersey in the picture above) scored nine of his 13 points for the game during the second quarter to lead the Taipei resurgence.
Hung Chih-shian accounted for eight of his team-high 17 in the second quarter.
In contrast, 14 of Dmitriy Gavrilov’s (blue jersey in the picture above) game-high 18 points came in the first half.
“It’s good to round off our campaign with a win,” said Taipei coach Zhang Xueli.
“The competition has been tough and deep. Therefore any win here is hard earned, especially for our team which is rebuilding,” he added.
Kazakshtan coach Vadim Burakov sounded almost similar: “Each game played has been a learning experience. I’ll take anything that comes.”
“I think we played a tough game, and kept ourselves in the race till the end. We can only grow from here,” he said.
(Photo: FIBA Asia)
Posted in men's nt, stankovic cup
Taiwan’s hope of making the semifinal in the 2010 FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup was eliminated after a 86-78 loss to Qatar in a quarterfinal game Friday.
21 years-old 6-6 forward Targuy Alban Ngombo, who was reportedly a naturalized Qatari from Congo, punished Taiwan’s thin frontline with 33 points and 10 rebounds. Ngombo led Qatar to surge ahead after the opening period and led by as many as 13.
E.A. Saeed had 17 points for Qatar, a team of veterans and some new faces.
Taiwan, which was outrebounded 50-27, managed to lead by 24-22 at the end of the first period, but everything went downhill after that.
Yang Ching-min led Taiwan with 16 points. James Mao had 15 and Lu Cheng-ju added 13. Jet Chang scored 12 while center Tseng Wen-ting was limited to 5 points and 6 boards.
In other quarterfinal games, Japan beat Jordan 94-80, the Philippines upset Iran 79-67 and Lebanon routed Kazakhstan 101-50.
In the semifinal, Qatar will meet Japan and Lebanon hosts the Philippines.
Japan’s victory means it has secured one more seat for East Asian countries in the next Asian Championship. In the 5-8 placing games, Taiwan will meet Jordan and Iran will meet Kazakhstan before the winners play for the 5th place.
The 5th place finish is crucial since top five teams in the tournament will win seats for each subzone in the next Asian Championship. If Taiwan is able to squeeze in the top five, it is almost certain that Taiwan will qualify for the next Asian Championship because there will be four seeds in the East Asia subzone, including two that were already granted and two won by Japan and Taiwan.
Which means the East Asia Championship, the qualifying tournament for the Asian Championship, won’t be a live-and-die tourney for Taiwan. All major countries in the region — China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan — should be able to clinch seeds in the Asian Championship.
FIBA Asia report:
QAT/TPE – Second quarter surge sees Qatar through to last four
BEIRUT, Lebanon (3rd FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup): GCC champions Qatar took charge of the proceedings early in the second quarter and then powered on past Chinese Taipei for a 86-78 win on Friday to take their place in the semifinals.
Qatar, winners of the inaugural edition of the FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup in 2004, now await the winners of the Jordan-Japan quarterfinal game.
Coach Ali Fakhroo thus avenged the 79-87 defeat Qatar had suffered at the hands of Taipei in the fifth place play-off at the 25th FIBA Asia Championship in Tianjin last year, the last time the two had met in an official competition.
“This is an entirely different team. We are on a rebuilding process. And the boys are determined to prove their worth in every game,” Fakhroo said.
Both played hide and seek with the scoreboard for the better part of the first 15 minutes, during which Qatari spearhead Targuy Ngombo was rather subdued.
The 21-yearold, undoubtedly the find of the tournament for FIBA Asia in terms of scoring prolificacy, scored only five points during his entire stay of 10 minutes in the first quarter, but came into his own early in the second.
A characteristic drive-in followed by the draw of foul from the perimeter and the subsequent success with all the three free-throws announced Ngombo’s find of his sublime touch and there was no further trouble for Qatar.
A conversion of an offensive rebound furthered his team’s cause and when he took the assist from Ali Ali to logical – and successful – conclusion, Qatar were truly in control.
The team had to maintain the form thereafter, which they did with consummate ease.
“We are playing but far from our best,” said Fakhroo.
“There are yet chinks to be ironed out in offense as well as defense. More in defense. But I think we are getting better,” he added.
Ngombo eventually finished with a game-high 33 points – 11 of them coming in the crucial second quarter. He also pulled down 10 rebounds.
Erfan Saeed with 17 points and Daoud Musa continued their longstanding service for the National team with another impressive showing – the former collecting nine rebounds to go with his 17 points and the latter adding value to his 14 points with six boards and a game-high four assists.
(Photo: FIBA Asia)
Posted in men's nt, stankovic cup
Group A
1. Japan 3-1
2. Iran 2-2
3. Taiwan 2-2
4. Kazakhstan 2-2
5. Iraq 1-3
Group B
1. Lebanon 4-0
2. Qatar 3-1
3. Philippines 2-2
4. Jordan 1-3
5. Syria 0-4
Quarterfinals:
Iran vs. Philippines
Qatar vs. Taiwan
Lebanon vs. Kazakhstan
Japan vs. Jordan
Posted in men's nt, stankovic cup
Taiwan lost to Iran 86-67 in its last preliminary game of the 2010 FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup, finishing with 2 wins and 2 losses and a third-place in Group A. It will meet Qatar in the quarterfinal.
Taiwan was outrebounded once again by a large margin, this time trailing 57-31. "Since it’s always not easy to gain rebounding advantage against taller West Asian opponents, perimeter shooting holds the key to winning. Unfortunately, our shots didn’t fall this time, " Taiwan head coach Zhang Xuelei was quoted by the United Daily News as saying.
Taiwan shot 10 for 29 from the three-point range and 7 for 16 at the free-throw line. It trailed by as many as 20 points in the game.
Jet Chang scored a team-high 13 points and Yang Ching-min scored 12. Lee Hsueh-lin had 10 points and 5 rebounds. Tseng Wen-ting had 7 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists.
Zhang was partially right. Taiwan has been having trouble with taller opponents, especially with so many injuries at this stage (Wu Tai-hao and Tien Lei did not play) but that still wasn’t enough to explain why it was humiliated by their opponents on the glass.
Taiwan only had 13 defensive rebounds against Japan. Is Japan that much taller? My observation is that Zhang did not fully prepare and motivate his players for the tournament. And that’s not good for a team which has already lost many core players to injuries.
Posted in men's nt, stankovic cup
Taiwan rallied behind point guard Lee Hsueh-lin in the final quarter to beat Iraq 86-77 in its third preliminary game of the 2010 Stankovic Cup tournament held in Beiruit, Lebanon Monday to increase its won-lost records to 2-1.
Lee had 9 points in the final 10 minutes as Taiwan, which led by as many as 11 points in the third quarter before a five-minute drought almost spoiled the game, overcame a 12-point deficit thanks to a timely 10-0 rally in the final period against its unfamiliar opponents.
According to Liberty Times, this is Iraq’s first apprearance in Asian basketball competition in 23 years. It last played in the 1987 Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand, Liberty Times reported.
With five players over 200cm, including two players standing at 209cm, Iraq enjoyed a height advantage against the smaller Taiwanese team, which could only counter Iraqi with their porimeter shooting.
Leading 45-34 at the half, Taiwan hit the wall after intermission. It failed to scored in five minutes during which Iraq answered with a 19-0 run and led by 12 in the end of the third period.
Chen Shun-hsiang had 16 points to pace Taiwan, which made 13 three-pointers in the game. Lee Hsueh-lin followed his brilliant performance in the last game against Kazakhstan with 14 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists and 5 steals.
Yang Ching-min added 13 while Chien Chia-hung had 12. Tseng Wen-ting had 8 points and 10 rebounds.
Taiwan had a rest day on Tuesday and will meet Iran in its next and the final preliminary game. It has clinched a berth in the second round.
Posted in men's nt, stankovic cup
Yang Ching-min scored 22 points and Chen Shun-hsiang added 16 as Taiwan bounced back from a disappointing loss to Japan and defeat Kazakhstan 80-64 Sunday in the 2010 Stankovic Cup, which is being held in Beiruit, Lebanon.
Taiwan fared much better on the glass, compared to its opening game performance against Japan (35-16), despite being outrebounded 48-35 again. It broke the game open with a 25-15 third quarter run for its first win in the tourney.
PG Lee Hseuh-lin, who is expected to sign with China’s Beijing Ducks next season, had 11 points, 10 assists and 7 steals. Center Tseng Wen-ting also shook off his slump and chipped in 11 points to go with 8 rebounds.
Kazakhstan was led by Dmitriy Gavrilov’s 14 points and Dmitriy Kilmov’s 12 points.
Taiwan is scheduled to meet Iran tonight. According to the China Times, 7-2 center Hamed Haddadi and 6-6 swingman Nikkhah Bahrami is not with the Iranian team in Beiruit, which boosts Taiwan’s chance of winning.
Standings:
Group A
Iran 1-0
Japan 1-1
Kazakhstan 1-1
Taiwan 1-1
Iraq 0-1
Group B
Qatar 2-0
Lebanon 1-0
Philippines 1-1
Jordan 0-1
Syria 0-2
(Photo: FIBA Asia)
Posted in men's nt, stankovic cup
Outrebounded 35-16, Taiwan lost to Japan 61-58 in its opener in the 2010 FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup Sunday.
Taiwan dug itself a big hole in the first three minutes, during which Japan opened the game with a 13-0 run, and all it could do was trying to catch up with the Japanese after that.
Chien Chia-hung led Taiwan with 17 points while Chen Shih-nian had 12. Center Tseng Wen-ting added 8 points and 4 rebounds.
Japan was paced by Takuya Kawamura, who had 15 points, and Kenta Hirose, who scored all of his 10 points in the first quarter. Kosuke Takeuchi had 9 points and 8 boards.
Taiwan head coach Zhang Xuelei started Lee Hsueh-lin and Chen Shih-nian at guards, Tseng at center and James Mao and Chien at forwards. Tseng’s addition was expected to solidify Taiwan’s thin frontline but the results turned out to be the same as the Jones Cup, when Taiwan was outrebounded in almost every game.
Taiwan assistant coach Chiu Tsung-chih was quoted by media as saying that Taiwan’s defense was actually not bad, but rebounding proved to be the key.
Posted in men's nt, stankovic cup
