Taipei, Oct. 6 (CNA) A Taiwanese university all-star team advanced to the playoff round of the 2010 Asian University Basketball Championship Tuesday, giving it a shot at its first title in the invitational tournament taking place at Kainan University in Taoyuan County.
The host, which has not won gold in the previous two biennial tourneys, won Group A to enter round-robin playoffs along with China's Tianjin Polytechnic University and the top two teams from Group B -- Lebanon's Universite Saint-Esprit De Kaslik and the Mongolia University All-Stars.
Taiwan beat Hong Kong 75-68 to emerge as the Group A winner in a three-way tie with Tianjin Polytechnic University and Hong Kong All-Stars, with two wins and one loss apiece.
Hong Kong, which led the group preliminaries with two wins prior to Tuesday's game, was eliminated because of inferior scoring differentials.
Hong Kong, Myongji University of South Korea and Thailand University All-Stars are slated to play in a series of round-robin classification games to determine the final placing from fifth to seventh place.
The final of the six-day competition will take place Oct. 8.
The invitational was launched in 2006, with Myongji University winning the inaugural title. An Iranian university all-star team took home the championship in 2008. (By Chris Wang) ENDITEM/J