Taiwan missed an opportunity to make history with a loss to South Korea 79-68 on Thursday in the semi-finals of the FIBA Asia U18 Championship for Men in Sana’a, Yemen.
If the team had advanced to the championship game, it would have been guaranteed to equal its best performance — silver medal finishes in 1972 and 1989 — in the biennial tournament, and could have challenged for its first ever gold.
Taiwan was dealt a knockout blow in the third quarter, when the Koreans opened the second half with a 17-2 run, turning a close game into a rout. Taiwan was out scored 23-10 in the third and trailed by as many as 18 points.
Unable to match South Korea’s inside play, Taiwan was out rebounded 39-22. Korea, which was led by Lee Seoung-hyun’s 17 points and 14 rebounds, and Lee Jong-hyun’s 15 points and 10 rebounds, also made 10 more free throws than Taiwan.
Center Hu Lung-mao scored a team-high 25 points to go with eight rebounds and six steals for Taiwan, which lead 35-34 at halftime. Chen Ying-chun and Huang Po-wei each had 13 points.
Taiwan was to meet Iran, which lost to China in the other semifinal match, in yesterday’s bronze medal game.
The bronze is still strongly desired because the top three teams from the tournament will represent Asia in next year’s FIBA U19 World Championship, which will be played in Latvia from June 30 to July 10.
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