China Beats Lebanon, Wins Title of Asian Championship

China Wins Asian Championship

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The overwhelming China proved a class of their own in Asia as they rolled into their eighth success win by beating Lebanon 97-63 in the finals at the 21st Asian Basketball Championship for Men on Saturday in Shanghai.

The finalists will represent Asia to compete in next year's World Basketball Championship in Indianapolis, U.S.A..

Lebanon, who had won the first entry into the final after they defeated South Korea 75-72 on Friday, were apparently not in the mind for the championship.

Baskets, rebounds, fast breaks and blocks. Everything just went the way for the Chinese, who took their twelfth title in the biannual continental competition.

China had beaten Lebanon 87-76 in a quarter-final match, which was stained by a fight between players of two sides. Three Lebanon's players were sent to the hospital and took some stitches.

But neither side had much complaints to calls during the game and hugged each other after game.

"We've learned lesson from last game. Today we played a good defence game and gave no chance to them again," said China's head coach Wang Fei.

Six Chinese players had double figures, led by Menk Batere's 17 points and nine rebounds and Yao Ming's 16 and 11.

China kept the high shooting percentage as three centers, Wang Zhizhi, Batere and Yao Ming, were over 66% in the field.

Fadi El Khatib had a game-high 18 points while teammate Joseph Vogel contributed 14 points for Lebanon.

"I gave a free night to my players after we beat South Korea last night, so we just played up to 20% of our strength," said Lebanon's American coach Carl Neumann.