Qatar survived a scare in Doha yesterday before outlasting Chinese Taipei 103-96 in double over-time for the semi-finals of the Doha Asian Games men's basketball tournament.

Trailing 78-72 with less than two minutes remaining in the regular time, Qatar staged an 9-3 run, capped by two free throws from Erfan Ali Saeed, to tie it at 81-all and force the first over-time.

The hosts were on the verge of elimination again with five seconds left on the clock and the score tied at 92-all. But Chou Shih Yuan missed both shots from the line to see the game into thesecond over-time, where Yasseen Ismail Musa netted eight of his 15points as Qatar outscored Chinese Taipei 11-4 for the victory.

"I would like to give credit to our boys. They fought and they never gave up and that's what we have to do to win the championship," said Qatar head coach Joseph Stiebing.

Saeed finished with game-high 27 points for Qatar and Turki Aliadded 20.