Japan ousts China, sets up S.Korea final
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![Players of China reacted after losing to Japan in the semifinals of the East Asia Basketball Championship for Men on Tuesday night. [Source: CFP]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20110615/000cf1bdd2450f624ff201.jpg "Players of China reacted after losing to Japan in the semifinals of the East Asia Basketball Championship for Men on Tuesday night. [Source: CFP]") |
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Players of China reacted after losing to Japan in the semifinals of the East Asia Basketball Championship for Men on Tuesday night. [Source: CFP] |
Japan overcame a 14-point deficit to beat China 72-62 on Tuesday night in the semifinals of the East Asia Basketball Championship for Men.
Japan will meet South Korea, who beat Chinese Taipei in the other semis, for the tournament title on Wednesday night, while China will play Chinese Taipei in the third-place play-off Wednesday afternoon.
China built a 38-24 lead in the first half after a lackluster opening quarter, in which two teams combined for 27 points with China leading 15-12.
Japan came out with some offensive spirit in the third quarter, cutting China's lead to 41-44 after a 17-6 run including two 3-pointers.
China answered with Zhang Zhaoxu's two points and one but couldn't stop the Japanese when Takeuchi Kosuke's tip-in tied it at 48 and Hirose Kenta's jump put Japan in front at 50-48.
China didn't score until 4:30 minutes to play in the fourth quarter when Zhang Bo hit a 3-pointer for 51-64 behind. Japan then extended the lead to 17 points, 68-51, the largest one in the game, with 3:58 minutes remaining.
China cut it to 60-68 with a 9-2 run, capped by Meng Duo's lay-up with 1:37 minutes left. However, it was too late.
"We played bad in the first half but did well defensively in the second half and made some big runs for the hard win," said Japanese coach Wisman Thomas.
Four players scored double figures for Japan with Kashiwagi Shinsuke, Takeuchi Kosuke and Hirose Kenta contributing 13 respectively. Zhang Daoxu was China's only one to score double-digit with 16 points.
"We made too many turnovers and relaxed a little bit in the second half," said Chinese coach Li Nan.
China made a total of 26 turnovers, 15 of them from second half.
Earlier Tuesday, South Korea beat Chinese Taipei 69-61 in the other semifinal. Kang Byunghyun hit 5 of 10 3-pointer and scored 17 points for his team.
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