TIANJIN (FIBA Asia Championship) - The crowd in the Tianjin Gymnasium to watch China’s games in the 25th FIBA Asia Championship has seen a consistent improvement on a daily basis. So has the performance of the home team.

After winning the first two games without much ado, China added another win to their kitty on Saturday, this time against 2005 FIBA Asia Championship bronze medallists Qatar 92-61.

Qatar, thus finished second in Group B, and also made it to the eight-final round.

China reeled off a 9-0 early in the first quarter that set the tone for their game and only went on to outscore their opponents over the remainder.

Wang Zhi Zhi came off the bench to support the efforts of Yi Jianlian, Zhu Fangyu and Liu Wei as the hosts rolled into the eight-final round without raising much sweat in their bid to regain the title.

Wang Zhi Zhi collected a game-high eight rebounds to go with his 15 points.

Liu also scored 15, hitting the mark thrice in five attempts in three-pointers in his 6/9 shooting record, along with a team-high four assists.

Yi scored 12, with a 55% shooting record (6/11) in the field, failing to convert his lone three-pointer attempt.

Zhu contributed 12 points each and Wang Shipeng scored seven of his 14 points in the fourth quarter.

Not that Qatar didn’t run the floor hard, but just that they were pitted against a much better-equipped outfit.

Mustafa Elsayed and Omar Salem helped Qatar kept the scoreboard ticking, there was not much support to their effort, in terms of scoring.

As a result, China’s advantage in scoring kept increasing as the game progressed.

Elsayed led the scoring for the game with 16 points, and pulled down seven rebounds. Salem had 13.

S Mageshwaran
FIBA Asia

ll Watch highlights of the game at FIBATV.com now - click here