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SEVEN-TIME winner China sensationally exited the Asian Games basketball yesterday, before the medals battle starts, after being defeated by Iran.
China failed to qualify as one of the top two in its quarterfinal pool after losing 67-75 to the gold-medal favorite in its final game. China’s fate was sealed when Japan beat Mongolia 96-70 in the later Group G game.
The basketball-mad Philippines was also dumped out, yesterday despite beating Kazakhstan which claimed a surprise semifinal slot after South Korea toppled Qatar 65-58 in the final Group H match.
The last time China failed to win an Asian Games medal was in 1970 and it has competed in nine consecutive finals since 1978, winning seven of them.
The damage was done on Saturday when a talented but young and inexperienced Chinese team squandered a nine-point half-time lead to be upset by Japan, 72-79.
“We didn’t expect that Japan could beat China,” Iran’s captain Samad Nikkah Bahrami said after a powerful display which saw him lead his team with 14 points, seven assists and three rebounds.
“China is a very good team. I’m telling you, I just played against them. They have a lot of good big guys who can shoot the ball very well.”
China’s head coach Gong Luming was optimistic that his young side would learn from its run to the quarter-finals in the tournament.
“I know that our players have to improve their shooting. National and international competitions are vastly different,” he said.
“They will become better players for this experience.”
China’s giant 2.17-meter Zhou Qi registered game highs with 17 points and 11 rebounds, but Iran was up 11-9 after five minutes and it never relinquished the lead.
“They lost this competition because they lost on Saturday night,” Nikkah Bahrami added. “They knew they were going to have a hard time against us. They shouldn’t have taken it easy against Japan, I think.”
Wednesday’s surprise semifinal line up will see Japan play South Korea and Iran take on Kazakhstan.
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