Overcoming a half-time deficit, Taiwan rallied past Kazakhstan 73-67 to close out the FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup with a face-saving victory in Beirut on Sunday evening.
The win yielded a 7th-place finish for Taiwan but the disappointing overall showing in Beirut further exposed their weakness in the middle with the only reliable big man being Tseng Wen-ding, a good 5cm shorter than his usual opponents.
The size disparity for Taiwan also revealed itself in the rebounding arena over the seven-game span as opponents out-muscled and outhustled them by a 331-215 margin in total boards with 149 of the 331 coming off the offensive glass.
Sunday night’s contest saw Kazakhstan dominate Taiwan early, leading by as many as a dozen with the solid play of Dmitriy Gavrilov inside the paint. The 202cm forward racked up a game-high 18 points in a losing effort for his country.
As for Taiwan, a dismal outing in the game’s first 15 minutes of play finally came to an end as it rallied for 14-9 run late in the first half to cut the deficit to six at the half.
An 11-3 run by Taiwan early in the third gave them their first lead of the game at 44-42 before Kazakhstan came back to regain a 58-57 lead midway through the fourth quarter.
However, the sweet taste of victory ultimately belonged to Taiwan with the deadly three-point shooting of guard Hong Chih-shang spurring a 17-9 run in the final five minutes of the contest to eke out the win.
Meanwhile, hosts Lebanon beat Japan 97-59 in the title game on Sunday while Qatar defeated the Philippines in 79-75 to finish third.
Jordan proved too strong for Iran in the battle for fifth with a 68-57 victory, while Iraq edged past Syria by an 84-82 margin to earn a ninth-place finish.
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