China comes from behind to take U18 Asian Championship

China entered the fourth quarter of the U18 Asian Championship for Men down by 10, but once again China’s 215m center, Wang Zhelin, took control and put China on the top step of the medal stand with a 93-91 victory over Korea.

Gold Medal Game
China – Korea 93-91
Korea managed to build an nine point advantage in the first quarter with 5:17 left, only to have China erase it over the next few minutes to head into the second quarter with the score 26-24, Korea.
China took their turn being out front and went on an 15-4 run to bring the score to 39-30. Korea fought back and cut the margin to three going into the locker room at the half.
In the third quarter the two squads traded baskets for the first four minutes and then Korea went on a 16-5 to end the quarter with a 10-point lead, 71-61.
The lead was still at nine points for Korea with 4:31 to play in the contest when China’s Jinglong Li nailed a three to cut the lead to six. Delong Han stole an errant Gibeom Cheon pass, got the ball to Gao, who missed a jumper, but Wang was able to secure the offensive rebound and score to cut the margin to four. Junyong Choi got Korea’s lead back up to seven with a three-pointer, but Jonghyun Lee missed two free throws on the next trip down the court and Gao’s jumper got China back to within five with 2:11 to play. Wang rattled the backboard with a dunk to trim the margin to three with 1:20 left and then hit an inside jumper with 30 ticks on the clock to bring the Chinese to within one. Wang fouled Lee on the next possession and Lee sank both charity tosses to move the margin back to three, 91-88 with 21 seconds left. Four seconds later, Wang, the seven-footer, dropped in a three-ball to tie the contest at 91. Korea called a timeout to set up a last shot, but Cheon was called for a five-second violation under the tough Chinese defense, giving the ball back to China. With Korea keying on Wang, he was able to draw the defense to him to get Gao open and his drive to the basket fell through giving China the victory, 93-91.
China’s Wang stood on top of the pile of scorers with 30 points and 13 rebounds, Duaibo Gao contributed 28 points to the win, and Dia added 18 points. Lee paced Korea with 24 points, J. Choi added 21, and both Cheon and Sangjae Kang accounted for 14 in the loss.

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