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Defensive downturn in final quarter hands Iran victory over Team Taiwan

Indecisiveness on offense and failure to keep the Iranians off the defensive glass late in the contest cost Team Taiwan the game against Iran on Sunday in a 65-57 decision, denying the Taiwanese a chance to advance into the second round of action at the 2005 FIBA Asian Basketball Championship in Doha, Qatar.

While the preparation by Team Taiwan to keep the taller Iranian squad off the glass worked for most of the game, resulting in a slight rebounding edge (38-35) for Team Taiwan, it allowed Iran's Aydin Nikkhah to slip through for two key fatal put-back baskets late in the game to seal the win for Iran.

The Taiwanese might have been thrown off a bit by the fact that Iran's 2.23m tall Jaber Rouzbahani was not in the starting lineup, and ended up not playing in the game at all, but it could not possibly explain the defensive letdown that took place in the final quarter for Taiwan.

After an intense first half that ended in a 28-26 lead for Iran, Taiwan suffered a scoring drought for nearly four minutes as it fell behind by as many as a dozen points in the third quarter.

It took a tenacious Taiwanese defense and poor free-throw shooting by Iran to reduce the gap to a deuce midway through the fourth quarter.

But indecisiveness on the offense as players passed up open-shot opportunities, ultimately dug a hole too deep for Team Taiwan to overcome.

Tien Lei led Taiwan with 17 points, including three three-pointers, while fellow big man Tseng Wen-ding and shooting guard Yang Yu-ming chipped in 11 and 10 points respectively for Team Taiwan.

As for Team Iran, sharp-shooter Iman Zandi led his squad with 15 points in the win as Iran looks ahead into round two of the competition.

Taiwan 109, Indonesia 88

Taiwan's quest for a ninth-place finish in the consolation round began with a 109-88 blowout victory over Indonesia on Monday.

Even without the service of its top scorer Tien due to a minor ankle injury, Taiwan managed to take a 14-point first-quarter lead with the help of its "twin towers," Tseng and Wu Dai-hao.

Although the Indonesians would close the gap to as small as four points in the second quarter, Team Taiwan was able to pull away with seven third-quarter three-pointers en route to the eventual trouncing.

Tseng led a Taiwanese attack that placed seven players in double-digit scoring with 16 points, followed by Wu's 15 for the game.

Background

The 16 teams are divided into four groups in this year's competition with the top two finishers in each group (playing each team within a group in a round-robin first round) advancing into the second round, while the third and fourth finishers from each group play for the 9th through 16th place finishes.

The grouping for this year's competition is as follows: Group A: Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and South Korea; Group B: China (defending champions), Taiwan, Iran and Uzbekistan; Group C: Japan, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Qatar; and Group D: India, Jordan, Hong Kong and Lebanon.
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