体坛英语新闻：Defending champions China lose to South Korean in Asian basketball championship

MANILA, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Defending champions China disappointed fans as they lost to arch-rivals South Korea at 27th Asian men's basketball championship here on Thursday while two-time winners Iran trounced Malaysia 115-25 to top the group.

Chinese shooters had an extremely poor performance as they went none out of 14 in three-point attempts. They also lost 20 free throws.

"We had a good defense tonight but my players missed too many layups and too many easy baskets," China coach Panagiotis Giannakis said after the match.

"I don't think our shooters have problems. They were just a little be panic and it's normal for the first match of a tournament."

Former NBA player Yi Jianlian led China with 23 points but was the only Chinese player to reach double figures. Yi and Wang Zhelin grabbed 10 rebounds each to help China out-rebound South Korea 34-25 but Yi's injury still plagued him.

"I still can't run with my full speed. It's very sorry that I can't perform my best to help the team," said Yi. "We knew it would be a tough match. We didn't shoot very well today and I hope we'll get better in future."

Kim Joo-Sung was the hero for South Korea as he scored team-high 15 points. He put a layup and drew a foul from China before his 2+1 performance helped South Korea to tie at 55-55.

Chou Sung-Min then made four free throws to enlarge the lead to four points.

China's Liu Xiaoyu then got a basket and the foul, but he missed his bonus charity which gave Yang Dong-Geun opportunity to secure the victory for South Korea.

South Korea will play against Iran on Friday, who whitewashed Malaysia 115-25 in the opening match of the tournament.

Both teams stood in silent tribute for one minute before the match for the 25-year-old Malaysian player Ng Kiat-Kee, who passed away while playing an invitational tournament in China due to a heart attack.

But the Malaysian team failed to turn sadness into power. Their only points scored in the first quarter were from Tong Wen-Keong's three-pointer. Hamed Hadadi was 6-of-6 and scored 14 points to help Iran lead 42-3 after the first quarter.

Iran coach Mehmed Becirovic fielded in substitutes in the second quarter but his bench players only outscored Malaysia 16-10. Hadadi, Mahdi Kamrany and Samad Nikkhah Bahrami returned to court to help Iran extend their lead to 76 points before the final quarter.

Hadadi needed only about 13 minutes to grab a match-high 21 points, as well as eight rebounds.

"The score is not important," said Becirovic. "It's important for us to play our game."

"We know South Korea well and they also know us well. South Korea is a very dangerous team and they have lots of great shooters," added Becirovic.

In Thursday's other matches, Chinese Taipei overcame a 10-point deficit and held off a late strike from Jordan to take a 91-87 victory, while hosts Philippines shook off a slow start to fight off Saudi Arabia 78-66 to top Group A.

In Group B, former NBA swingman Jarvis Hayes helped Qatar to overcome an right-point deficit in the fourth quarter to edge Japan 75-74.

Bahrain edged out India 82-80 in overtime.