Taiwan finished seventh at the FIBA U18 Asian Championship in Iran on Sunday after topping Qatar 93-71 in a game that remained close until the last six minutes of the contest.

Competing under the name “Chinese Taipei” as it typically does in international competitions, Taiwan faced the same team against which it opened the tournament in the group stage last Sunday.

The matchup was set up after the two teams lost their quarterfinal games and then had subsequent losses in games for fifth and sixth place in the 10-team tourney.

Taiwan was the prohibitive favorite Sunday, having topped Qatar 96-62 in its Aug. 21 opener. The team from the Middle East had also lost its last two games by 44 points (to China) and 37 points (to Iran).

But Qatar had different ideas, jumping out to an 11-6 lead and playing its opponent tough the rest of the half to carry a 41-38 lead into the third quarter.

After the break, Taiwan began to assert itself behind forwards Yeh Wei-chieh (???) and Chang Chun-sheng (???) to open leads of 52-44 and 57-49 before Qatar fought back to pull within two at the end of the third quarter 65-63.

The game remained close early in the final quarter, but Taiwan went on a 13-0 run that finished with a three-pointer by Chang to take an 80-65 lead with 4:49 left, finally putting the game away.

South Korea and Japan were to play for the title later Sunday.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel