Taiwan finally ended their drought at the preliminary round of the FIBA Asia Championship with a 72-64 win over Qatar at the Changsha Social Work College Gymnasium in Hunan Province, China, late on Friday evening to settle for a 1-2 record in Group D.
Even though the win was against the group’s top team, the result did not see Taiwan qualify for the second round, missing the cut by one place due to a pair of earlier losses.
Taiwan are to play in the Classification Round for a chance to finish as high as 13th.
Qatar opened strongly to seize a 10-3 advantage before Taiwan answered with a 9-0 run to close out the first quarter trailing 20-17.
Taiwan kept the deficit around five points in the second quarter until a buzzer-beating three by Qatar’s Clinton Johnson from near midcourt stretched it to eight.
Five straight points by Liu Cheng in the opening minutes of the second half brought Taiwan to within three before a stellar effort from Lin “the Beast” Chih-chieh and Tsai Wen-cheng in the third finally gave Taiwan their first lead of the game at 48-47.
The two teams traded the lead, which stayed below six for several minutes, until Lu Cheng-ju connected for two three-pointers to help Taiwan grab a five-point advantage with less than three minutes to play.
Lin and Quincy Davis combined to hit five of six free-throws down the stretch to preserve a hard-earned victory.
Taiwan next face Singapore, who finished fourth in their group.
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