Japan,Hongkong arrange duel for 9th place

MANILA, Philippines – East Asian teams Japan and Hong Kong, teams missing the Top Four in Group E competition, repulsed Group F rivals India and Bahrain Friday to set up a duel for ninth place in the 27th FIBA Asia Championship.

The Japanese outlasted the Indians, 73-64, for their second win in six games in the tourney while the Crown Colony team nailed its first triumph with an 87-79 whipping of the Bahrainis, 87-79.

Japan and Hong Kong clash for ninth place at 12:45 p.m. while India and Bahrain fight for 11th at 10:30 a.m. today.

Badly crippled by injuries, the Indians and the Bahrainis just couldn’t keep up with the Japanese and the Hong Kong side in these consolation-round matches.

Naturalized player JR Sakuragi led five Japanese players scoring in double figures as they fashioned out a come-from-behind victory over the Indian team reduced to an eight-man squad by health problems.

Hiejima Makoto, Ota Atsuya, Kosuke Takeuchi and Tsuji Naoto also put in double-digit outputs for the Japanese who wore down the Indians to overcome a 12-point halftime deficit.

The Indians, under American coach Scott William, set the pace more than three-fourths of the way before losing steam and firepower at the finish.

Hit by fatigue, the Indians scored only 10 points in the payoff quarter.

With worse health woes including the ACL injury that downed naturalized player CJ Giles, Bahrain was easy prey for Hong Kong.

Center Duncan Reid logged 20 points, seven rebounds and three assists and the HK shooters torched the Bahrainis with an 11-of-28 three-point shooting.

Hong Kong, competing here with help from Filipino coach Derrick Pumaren, is sure to improve from its 13th place finish in Tokushima in 1997.

The scores:

First Game

Hong Kong 87 – Reid 20, Lee 16, Fong 13, Li 12, Lam 11, Wong 5, Chan 5, Lau 3, Chan 2.

Bahrain 79 – Altawash 29, Alderazi 16, Kawaid 14, Alderazi A. 11, Akber 5, Azzam 4, Kawaid Y. 0.

Quarterscores: 30-18, 43-43, 64-59, 87-79

Second Game

Japan 73 – Yakeuchi 12, Tsuji 12, Hiejima 10, Ota 10, Sakuragi 10, Tanaka 9, Matsui 3, Ichioka 3, Watanabe 2, Sakurai 2, Kanamaru 0, Kurihara 0.

India 64 – Bhriguvanshi 12, Pethani 11, Joginder 9, Amjyot 9, Yadwinder 7, Amritpal 6, Grewal 6, Pratham 4.

Quarterscores: 16-25, 29-41, 50-54, 73-64