China girls break Korean hearts in basketball thriller

JAKARTA: China dashed the Unified Korea’s hopes of an emotional women’s basketball gold medal when they won a tense final 71-65 at the Asian Games on Saturday.

Lim Yung-hui top-scored with 24 points in a losing cause as China pulled away from 38-38 at half-time before holding off the Koreans in the final quarter. Park Ji-su was tearful after the game as the Korean team, featuring players from both sides of the heavily fortified Korean border, came up short. “As a player... I am disappointed,” Park said, breaking into tears. “All our team-mates played very well. It was a close game,” she added, while sobbing.

Her team-mate Lim Yung-hui and coach Lee Moon-kyu said the squad, which only came together days before the Games, hadn’t had enough time to practise together. The Koreans were supported throughout the tournament by vocal fans brandishing blue and white Korean unification flags and wearing ‘One Corea’ T-shirts.

Super sub outshines NBA stars as China take basketball gold: China regained the Asian Games men’s basketball title Saturday with a 84-72 win over Iran after a stunning comeback spearheaded by substitute Abudushalamu Abudurexiti.

Iran were leading by 16 points in the second quarter before their coach Mehran Shahintab made a raft of changes, inadvertently allowing the seven-time champions back into the match.

China took the lead by early in the third quarter with NBA-linked Abudurexiti, an ethnic Uighur from China’s remote northwest Xinjiang province, coming off the bench to top-score with 20 points.

Houston Rockets centre Zhou Qi also managed 15 points as China pulled clear in the final quarter to the delight of their raucous support.