S Korea, Iran cagers set up final
Print Edition
THE South Korea men’s team thrilled a large home crowd with an improved second-half defensive display yesterday to reach the Asian Games basketball final by beating Japan 71-63.
But there was nearly a huge upset in the other semifinal when unbeaten favorite Iran was almost humbled by Kazakhstan, but edged home 80-78.
Japan led most of the first half against the Koreans with Naoto Tsuji rattling home three of his game-high five 3-pointers as he dished out an early shooting lesson at the Samsan World Gymnasium in Incheon.
“We knew they liked those mid-range jump shots and we tried to take those away, but the other guys got loose for a lot of 3s,” Korea’s “TJ” Moon Tae-jong said.
Towards the end of the second period Japan’s shooting went awry and South Korea tied it at 34-34 by the break.
It was a different story in the second half as the Koreans found their range and tightened up defensively to jump out to a 43-34 lead on the back of good rebounding from the 2.06-meter Lee Jong-hyun. They were never behind again and held on comfortably to reach tomorrow’s gold medal match against Iran.
Captain Samad Nikkhah Barami scored 27 points as Iran barely scraped home against surprise semifinalist Kazakhstan at the Gwaseong Gymnasium.
Kazakhstan roared back from 42-48 down at half-time to level at 64-64 by the end of the third period.
The Kazakhs continued in the same vein for much of the fourth and led 77-68 with a few minutes remaining but Nikkhah Barami inspired a 9-0 scoring to turn it around at 78-77 and Iran just held on till the buzzer.
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