Tuesday, September 02, 2008 South Korea routs RP Youth, 98-80
THE SOUTH Korean Under-18 squad proved too much for the upstart Philippine Youth team, 98-80, at the start of the Group 2 quarterfinal round of the 20th FIBA Asia U18 Championship Men held at the Azadi Basketball Hall in Tehran, Iran last Sunday evening.
The Philippine team was able to give a fight in the opening quarter, losing lead following a three-pointer by Park Jaehyun before the buzzer for a 24-23 edge.
From there, the Koreans pushed hard and was ahead 50-39 at the end of the first half.
The lead ballooned to 73-57 at the end of the third and the Pinoys to come up with a counter attack in the next quarter to surrender the game to the silver medal winners in the 2006 edition.
Lim Jongill topped Korea with 23, Park contributed 17 and Jang Jaeseok added 14.
The Philippines saw their usual scoring leader performing below par as Jaypee Mendoza and Ryan Garcia only had 14 points each and Joseph Terso added 13.
Last night the Philippines were set to play Japan.
Forfeit
Meanwhile, defending champions China lost by forfeiture to Syria after the powerhouse squad refused to return to the court after their head coach Li Chunjiang contested a technical foul slapped against him.
China was ahead 46-41 with 6:13 left in the third quarter when the incident happened, leading to the Chinese squad walking out of the venue.
When the defending championship refused to return to the court, Match Commissioner Jafarian Nosratollah ruled the forfeiture in favor of the Syrians.
In the other games, Iran defeated Japan, 111-91, and Kazakhstan defeated Lebanon in double overtime, 106-103. (RCM)
