The Japanese led all the way for its second straight win in the second-round round-robin Group B.

"Lebanon is a very strong team, but we are a strong team too," said Kosuke Takeuchi, who had 14 points, nine rebounds and two blocks for Japan. "I am very happy that we have got two wins, our target is to win the championship."

Lebanon, who scored 106 points in its opening victory against Uzbekistan, was held to 24-for-76 from the field and 17-for-43 from beyond the arc.

"We won this game with tough defense," said the 21-year-old Takeuchi. "We were just trying to force them shoot from the outside."

Takehiko Orimo finished 7-for-12 from the field to lead Japan with 23 points.

Lebanon had a sluggish start, falling down 20-12 in the first quarter. Finding it hard to tear open the Japanese inside defense led by Fumihiko Aono and Takeuchi, who stood at 2.10-meter and 2.05-meter respectively, Lebanon had to attack from the outside, but its shooters could hardly find their touch.

"I didn't make the shots I usually made," said Joseph Vogel, who notched a game-high 24 points but was just 9-for-28 from the field. "And our defense was poor today."

"I don't really give them the credit they may deserve, we just didn't do what we had to do to win the game," Vogel added.

Lebanon coach Koussay Khalaf admitted his side had overlooked its opponent.

"Loose play cost us the match, mentally our players were not ready," Khalaf said.

Chinese cagers beat Uzbekistan 91-68 for their second straight win.

Uzbekistan, who lost to Lebanon 106-70 on Saturday, managed to stay within 30-24 early in the second quarter, but China closed the quarter with a 14-3 run for a cushion at 44-27 at the half time.

After the two sides exchanged runs in the third quarter, China went into the fourth leading at 62-49.

Uzbekistan cut its deficit to 10 points early in the final period, only to see China score 13 straight points for an unshakable 78-55 lead with five minutes remaining.

Sun Yue scored 22 points and NBA prospect Yi Jianlian added 21 to lead the Asian champion, who will next play Chinese Taipei on Wednesday.

"Sun Yue played well today," said China coach Jonas Kazlauskas." I am happy that he tried to play good defense, some players like Yi (Jianlian) and Liu Wei also played good defense."

Earlier on Monday, Chen Hsin An made two free throws with just over 10 seconds remaining to give Chinese Taipei an narrow 81-79 win over Kazakhstan.

China and Japan both have two wins against no loss in Group B while Lebanon and Chinese Taipei were on 1-1 record.