facebooktwittertelegramwhatsapp
copy short urlprintemail
+ A
A -
webmaster
Tribune News Network
JAKARTA
Former silver medallists Qatar displayed fine on-court efficiency to win the opening men's basketball encounter at the Asian Games, beating off a spirited surge from Hong Kong in the last quarter in Jakarta on Tuesday.
Qatar won the Group C preliminary game 90-80.
Managing 27 in the first and 24 in the second quarter, Qatar built up a healthy 51-32 lead at the halftime and widened it to 73-48 on way to a 90-80 victory.
Forward Khalid Suliman Abdi (19 points) and swingman Mohamed Hassan A Mohamed aka Mizo Amin (17 points) kept the 2006 Asian Games runners-up ahead. Centre Mohammed Yousuf Mohamed chipped in with 15 and young player Moustafa Lashin earned 10.
In the first six minutes, both teams battled to shrug off each other, though Qatar always stayed ahead. Mizo Amin sank a trey to push Qatar 15-11 up. In the remaining four minutes, Al Annabi produced good drive-ins to go 27-16 clear and never took their foot off the pedal.
Lau Tsz-lai scored 12 of his team-leading 21 points in the fourth as Hong Kong outpointed their opponents 32-17 in the final 10 minutes. All his points came off out-of-arc shots.
But it was much too late for Hong Kong, who had managed only 16 points in each for the first three quarters, giving themselves too much to do on the stretch.
Tsai Choi-kwan scored 12 points for Hong Kong while Szeto Wai-kit had 10.
On Friday, Qatar will next take on Chinese Taipei, who edged Japan 71-65 in another pool clash. Al Annabi will face Japan on August 22 with the top two from each of the four groups advancing to the quarter-finals.
In Group A games, holder South Korea crushed Indonesia 104-65 and Thailand got the better of Mongolia 87-86.
copy short url   Copy
15/08/2018
580