POSTED BY: Eurobasket Center
Kenta Hirose
China lost to Japan 72-62 in the semifinals of the East Asian Championship today. China plays Chinese Taipei for third place tomorrow while Japan plays South Korea for the title. China automatically qualifies for the Asian Championship since they are the host so this tournament is for practice and for determining the last few spots on the roster.
The only player who played truly well today was Zhang ZhaoXu (221-C-87, college: California) who had 16 points on 7 of 10 shooting and 9 rebounds in 15 minutes. He had no turnovers.
Su Wei, his competition for backup center, had 2 points on 1 of 5 shooting and 6 turnovers. He fouled out in 24 minutes but did get 9 rebounds. Meng Duo had 9 points on 3 of 12 shooting and 7 turnovers and may have played himself off the team with this game. Yu Shulong had 5 points on 1 for 5 shooting and likewise failed to impress.
Mo Ke hit 1 of 6 shots and scored 8 points but is not producing offensively on this level. Dong Hanlin had 7 points and 8 rebounds in 23 minutes. Yi Li, this team's most versatile player, started and had 2 points and 2 rebounds but only played 10 minutes.
Han Shuo scored 8 points but fouled out in 17 minutes and had only 1 assist. Zhang Bo had 7 points and 1 assist in 30 minutes.
China led 15-12 after one quarter and 38-24 at the half. It then came upart in the second half, being outscored 26-10 in the third quarter and 22-14 in the fourth.
Note that China's top eight players -- Yi Jianlian, Wang Zhizhi, Wang Shipeng, Liu Wei, Sun Yue, Ding Jinhui, Zhou Peng and Zhu Fangyu -- are not competing in this tournament. The players here are playing for the last four slots on the team -- along with veterans like Zhang Qingpeng and Zhang Kai who might make the team by default.
