South Korea produced a powerhouse performance to defeat Bahrain, 88-73, yesterday in the playoff for the quarter-finals of the basketball competition in the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
The disappointing result means that Bahrain have been eliminated from the tournament and South Korea will face China in their quarter-final today.
Bahrain started off well enough, matching the Koreans point for point in the opening five minutes of the first quarter with the South-East nation’s team leading by just one point, at 10-9.
But a couple of minutes later, the Koreans had increased their lead to eight points, at 17-9, and it took some impressive plays by Mohammed Ameer Hamooda, Devon Dwayne Chism and Ali Alhassan to narrow the deficit down to four points by the time the second quarter began, with the scoreboard showing South Korea leading 24-20.
But the second quarter went spectacularly pear-shaped for Bahrain as the Koreans piled up 31 points while restricting the kingdom’s team to just 16.
At the break, South Korea led 55-36 and added another 20 points in the third quarter while Bahrain could only muster 15 with the scoreboard showing the Koreans leading 75-51.
Bahrain needed to produce something special to win from that point. But South Korea were not prepared to surrender their hefty advantage and when, with just five minutes left on the clock, the scoreboard showed the Koreans still leading by 21 points, at 81-60, it seemed to be a lost cause for the Bahrainis.
And so, it proved despite some impressive commitment from Alhassan, who scored a two-pointer; Maitham Jameel, with another two-pointer and Chism, with yet another two-point shot.
But the Koreans were not bothered because they continued to add to their tally and, by the time Mohamed Kadhem sank a two-point shot to register Bahrain’s final addition to their own score, the game was already lost with just 26 seconds left to play and the scoreboard showing South Korea ahead, 88-73, which led to the Bahraini players shaking hands with their opponents to signal the end of the game.
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