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| Baqer Ali scored 23 points to lead Bahrain to a ticket to the quarterfinals. FIBA Photo. |
By Ricky Manliguis
MANILA—Bahrain
completed the quarterfinal cast of the 2018 FIBA Under-18 Asian Championship
with an emphatic 76-65 win over Chinese-Taipei at Stadium 29 in Nonthaburi,
Thailand Wednesday night.
The
Bahrainis had to recover from a nightmarish second quarter with a blistering
second half display to secure the win and a last-eight showdown with Batang
Gilas on Thursday. It is also the only win for a third-seeded team in the
tournament.
Leading by
double digits in the first period, 26-16, Chinese Taipei went back to life with
23 points while stymied the Middle Eastern squad's offensive to just nine for a
39-35 heading into halftime.
But that was all Chinese Taipei can muster, as
Bahrain answered back with a 20-3 third quarter to control the game from there, 55-42.
Chinese
Taipei tried to revive their chances, but could not trim the deficit to single
digits. Muzamil Hamoda scored the insurance basket, 73-56, with 1:22 left in
the match.
Baqer Ali and Mustafa Rashed each scored 23
points while Hamoda issued 14 for Bahrain, which shot 45% from the field and
pulled a 54-42 rebounding advantage.
The winner
of the Philippines-Bahrain match-up will meet the survivor of the
Australia-Japan tussle. Japan entered the last eight by mangling Lebanon,
85-67.
The other
quartefinal pairings pit defending champions Iran versus New Zealand and South Korea going up against 11-time winners China.
New Zealand clobbered India, 129-76, while China vented its ire on Indonesia,
102-45.
The Scores:
Bahrain 76— Baqer
Ali 23, Mustafa Rashed 23, Hamoda 14, Ali Rashed 7, Karim
Aboukuora 4, Ali Kadhem 3, Ghanem Nawaf 2, Rashed Awadh
0, Ahmed Dindayneh 0.
Chinese
Taipei 65— Yan 19, Ma 13, Cheng 8, Chen FPY 8, Li 8, Morrison 4, Yun 3, Kuang
2, Jin 0, Chang 0, Chia 0, Yen 0.
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