Taiwan’s national basketball team on Wednesday suffered a heartbreaking loss, ending their FIBA Asia Cup run after Iran staged a dramatic comeback to secure a 78-75 victory in the quarter-finals at King Abdullah Sports City in Saudi Arabia.
Taiwan were in front for 38 minutes, 30 seconds of the 40-minute game.
Iran only took the lead in the final minute, but it was enough to knock Taiwan out of the tournament.
Photo courtesy of fiba.basketball
With the win, Iran advanced to tomorrow’s semi-finals, when they face Australia.
The loss ended a promising campaign for Taiwan, who had been aiming for their first semi-final appearance since the 2013 FIBA Asia Cup, when they also fell to Iran, 79-60, in the semi-finals.
“We shot better, but we still lost the game. This is basketball,” Taiwan coach Gianluca Tucci told a post-game news conference. “We didn’t overcome the last issues of the game. Maybe we deserved to win, but this is basketball. But I am still proud of every single player, every single member of our staff, of our federation.”
Photo courtesy of fiba.basketball
Taiwan captain Liu Cheng thanked Iran for providing a high-pressure game, saying it would be a valuable experience for Taiwan’s basketball program, despite the loss.
“We will do better when facing a similar situation in the future,” Liu said.
Taiwan opened the game with a 10-0 run and held a commanding 42-26 halftime advantage.
Photo courtesy of fiba.basketball
However, in the second half Iran began their comeback.
Taiwan center Brandon Gilbeck was forced to the bench due to foul trouble less than two minutes into the third quarter.
Without a strong presence in the paint, Iran’s power forwards Mohammad Amini and Arsalan Kazemi steadily chipped away at Taiwan’s lead.
Photo courtesy of fiba.basketball
Shooting guard Lin Ting-chien, who led the team with 22 points, kept his side ahead 64-52 heading into the fourth quarter after making a three-pointer with three seconds left in the third, but Iran opened the fourth quarter with a 17-5 run, tying the game for the first time at 69-69 with three minutes remaining.
Taiwan’s Adam Hinton and Iran’s Arman Zangeneh traded threes before Amini’s free-throw with 41 seconds left gave Iran their first lead of the night at 75-74.
Amini followed up with an easy layup to extend the lead to 78-75 with 14 seconds remaining.
Photo courtesy of fiba.basketball
Taiwan still had a chance to force overtime, but Lin missed a potential game-tying three in their final possession.
Amini finished with a Most Valuable Player performance of 30 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and one block.
“At halftime, we had a long talk and we changed the approach,” Iran coach Sotirios Alex Manolopoulos said at the news conference. “We knew we will get our shots and this time, we will make out shots. For the second half, we played to our maximum.”
Photo courtesy of fiba.basketball
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