CHINESE Taipei claimed the leadership of Group D of the FIBA Asia Cup after an 87-60 drubbing of Iraq at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday evening.
Fresh off its conquest of Gilas Pilipinas two days ago, the East Asian country never trailed in the game where they led by as many as 34 points, before cruising to a comfortable victory and improving to 2-0 in the continental basketball meet.
Ting-Chien Lin powered Chinese Taipei’s torrid shooting from beyond-the-arc as he fired 22 points anchored on three treys in less than 20 minutes of action. As a team, Chinese Taipei made 15 of their 37 threes for a highly-efficient 40.5 percent shooting clip, even despite the struggles of Gilas Pilipinas killer Ying-Chun Chen.
Rough night for Chinese Taipei's sniper
After firing 34 points and making six of his eight threes against the Philippines, Chen seemingly emptied his clip as he was scoreless in nearly 20 minutes of play, having missed all three of his attempts from downtown.
It didn’t matter though as Ting found plenty of help starting with Mohammad Gadiaga who finished with 13 points, Adam Hinton who added 11 and Chien-Hao Ma who finished with nine. The trio combined to make 8-of-14 from downtown.
Abdullah Alibraheemi led the Iraqis with 20 points and seven boards to no avail as they will now have to win against Gilas Pilipinas on Saturday to stay alive in the tournament.
Whether Chinese Taipei holds on to the top seed of Group D depends on the result of the Gilas - New Zealand game which is set on Thursday, 11 PM (Philippine Time).
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
