Taiwan dropped its second game in three days, falling short to Qatar by an 86-78 margin in the quarter-finals of the FIBA Asia Stankovic Cup in Beirut late on Friday evening to end their bid to advance.
The loss meant that Taiwan would have to beat Jordan in the losers’ bracket late last night. Jordan lost their quarter-final match against Japan on Friday and will play in the game for the fifth-place finish, qualifying the winner for the upcoming Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.
Superb shooting by Yang Jing-min (Taiwan Beer) and James Mao (Pure Youth Constructions) in the early going gave Taiwan a surprising 24-22 lead after one quarter of play against a sluggish Qatari lineup.
PHOTO: AFP
However, Qatar regrouped in a hurry with an outstanding second quarter, highlighted by top-scorer Targuy Ngombo’s 11 points to take a 48-41 lead at the half. The Congo native who became a naturalized citizen of Qatar to play for the nation had averaged 29.5 points per game during the four-game preliminaries to lead the Qatari attack.
Taiwan kept the deficit to under a half-dozen early in the third quarter, but the Ngombo-led Qatari inside attack proved too strong for Taiwan to handle as they outscored the Taiwanese 50-22 inside the paint to pull away with the win.
Failure to keep Qatar off the offensive glass hurt Taiwan tremendously as Qatar nabbed 26 of 50 rebounds there, leading to numerous second-chance baskets for the victors.
As for Taiwan, the lone highlight in the game was their 12-for-29 shooting from behind the three-point arc that made the final score more respectable even though the outcome of the game was never in doubt.
Four players scored in double digits for each team with Ngombo’s game-high 33 leading the way for Qatar while Yang topped the Taiwanese quad with 16.
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