Thursday, June 24, 2010

Taiwan 2-0 in basketball tourney

Taipei, June 24 (CNA) Taiwan's under-18 women's national basketball team routed Malaysia 71-45 Thursday in Thailand to go 2-0 in the International Basketball Federation Asia U18 Championship for Women (FIBA).

Taiwan beat Kazakhstan 81-68 the previous day in its opening game of the biennial tournament that runs June 23-30 and serves as the qualifying event for the FIBA World U19 Championship for Women to be held in Chile next year.

The 12 participating teams are divided into two levels -- the elite Level I and the qualifying Level II. Each team will play all the other teams in their level in the single round-robin preliminary round. The four best-placed teams of Level I will then go through to the semifinals, while the top two Level II teams will play the bottom two Level I teams for a chance to enter the Level I competition.

Taiwan, led by Liu Jung-hsing's 16 points and Liu Yu-ting's 14 points and 12 rebounds in Thursday's win, is scheduled to meet powerful South Korea Friday in Level I, which consists of Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, China, Malaysia and Kazakhstan.

The competition has been dominated by China and South Korea, which had won the Asian title 11 and seven times, respectively before Japan upset China and took the gold medal for the first time in 2008. Taiwan has won silver and bronze three times each.

The defending champion, Japan, edged out China 73-72 again in its opening game Wednesday.

The top three teams in the tournament will represent Asia in Chile. (By Chris Wang) ENDITEM/J