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21st ABC Championship for Men: Eight Teams Left in Hunt for Gold
China's Yao Ming has not lost a game yet at the 21st Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Championship for Men in his hometown, but he is not about to start feeling too comfortable. He knows the hard part is yet to come.
After three days of preliminary games featuring some mismatches between powerhouses like China and inexperienced sides such as Thailand, the 14 competitors at this year's championship have been split into a group of eight contenders for gold and six teams hoping to gain some experience and take pride in not coming last.
China, Lebanon, Taiwan, Japan, Qatar, South Korea, Syria and India are still in the hunt to win the Asian championship or be one of the top two finishers who will represent the region at the 14th World Basketball Championship in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA next year.
Japan have a tough task ahead as they will play Taiwan on Monday and China on Tuesday. China will play Lebanon Monday, while Syria face India. Lebanon defeated Singapore 90-56 and Hong Kong fell 99-44 to China on Sunday. Hong Kong take on Singapore Monday.
The unbeaten South Koreans defeated UAE handily 85-50 to finish atop their group and will next play Qatar, who breezed past Thailand 80-60. UAE will meet Thailand on Monday. In other games Sunday, Taiwan beat winless Uzbekistan 79-65 and Japan lost 75-65 to Syria.
In China's game against Hong Kong, the hosts appeared to be firing on all cylinders at both ends of the court. Hong Kong did not penetrate the Chinese defence for more than eight minutes in the second quarter and scored just three point in the 10-minute period.
Yung Kam-wah led Hong Kong with 11 points, including three 3-pointers. "They are good, of course, and they are the champions. Their inside and outside games both are quite strong," Yung said.
China's attack was led by Dallas Maverick Wang Zhizhi with 16 points, while Li Nan contributed 14 and Gong Xiaobin chipped in 12. Yao Ming had nine points and appeared to be suffering from a sore stomach during the game, leaving the stadium at one point to return to the dressing room. His status will be updated on Monday after he gets a good sleep.
Play continues all week, with the semi-finals on Friday July 27 and finals the next day at Shanghai Stadium.
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