China struggles past Kazakhstan in Asiad men's basketball
3/12/2006 12:15
Asian champion China claimed an opening win at the Doha Asian Games men's
basketball tournament, but not as easily as its arch rival Lebanon did.
The
Chinese, the incontestable No. 1 team in Asia, made great efforts to beat
qualifier Kazakhstan 89-77 in Doha yesterday.
Earlier on Saturday, Lebanon,
who eyed a title clash with China in the final, routed Uzbekistan 106-70 in
another second round Group B match.
Sun Yue and Yi Jianlian combined for ten
points to lead a 10-0 burst that pushed China up to 39-20 before Kazakhstan
closed the first half with a 10-4 run to pull within 48-37.
After a seesaw
game in the third quarter, Kazakhstan managed to cut its deficit to six points
early in the fourth. Wang Shipeng made two three-pointers in a row to make it
78-66 and China held on for the victory.
Former NBA player Wang Zhizhi led
China with 22 points with NBA prospect Yi Jianlian, who was struggling with foul
trouble, adding 14.
Dmitriy Korovnikov finished with 22 points for
Kazakhstan.
Xinhua
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