Taiwan succumbed to a towering Iranian lineup that featured two 210cm players, dropping an 86-67 decision on Day 5 of the FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup in Beirut late on Wednesday evening to close out Group A’s preliminary round with an even 2-2 mark.
The loss sent Taiwan to a third-place finish behind Japan (3-1) and Iran (2-2) as the top four finishers from each group get set to play in the cross-group quarter-finals scheduled for this afternoon.
Similar to last month’s Jones Cup match against the same Iran team, Taiwan opened the game with a surprising 9-7 lead after five minutes of play, but the size disparity quickly took its toll as Iran punched the ball inside the paint with the stellar play of center Asghar Kardoustpoustins, who finished with a game-high 24 points and 11 rebounds to close the gap and take a 17-15 lead by the end of the first quarter.
Taiwan played most of the second quarter evenly against Iran with Tseng Wen-ding (Yulon Luxgens) and Yang Jing-min (Taiwan Beer) leading the attack until a 9-0 run by the Iranians late in the quarter put them ahead 46-36 at the half.
That was more than the Taiwanese could handle, with Tseng and Yang getting into foul trouble in the third quarter as Iran extended their lead to as large as 23 points in the quarter with Kardoustpoustins doing as he pleased inside the paint and fellow shooters converting several attempts from behind the three-point line to open up a big lead.
Four players ended the game with double-digit scoring for Iran, with two netting 20 or more, not to mention the lopsided 57-31 rebounding edge (30 off the offensive glass) enjoyed by the Persians that made it virtually impossible for Taiwan to compete.
Next up for the Taiwanese will be Qatar, who finished second behind undefeated Lebanon with a 3-1 record in Group B preliminary action. Tipoff is scheduled for 9pm.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier