Chinese men's basketball coach Guo Shiqiang admitted that he should take the full responsibility for China's 52-70 loss in the final of 25th FIBA Asia Championship Sunday.

"All players and the entire coaching-team prepared two months for the tournament and they were all very hard-working," said Guo. "It's really a pity for us to lose the title. I think we didn't get enough mental preparation and the players took too much pressure during the match."

Guo thought that western Asian countries were having great improvement in basketball as there were three western Asian countries in the top four of the tournament besides China, which are Iran, Jordan and Lebanon.

"I'm the head coach and I will make serious review in the upcoming days," added Guo. "Our players did not perform their best and if the whole team performed well, the result could have been changed."

Houston Rockets center Yao Ming missed the tournament for injury and Guo Shiqiang considered Yao's absence another reason for China's disadvantage in the paint as Iran outrebounded China 48-31.

(Xinhua News Agency August 17, 2009)