South Korea Finishes Seventh
By Yoon Chul
Staff Reporter
South Korean basketballers finished seventh in the Asia Championship in Tianjin, China, Sunday.
Korean guard Yang Dong-geun sank the decisive layup shot for a 82-80 win in the last second, making Korea the winner in a close game over the Philippines.
The Hur Jae-managed team was looking to grab the champion's title for the first time in 12 years. But they lost to Lebanon on Friday in the quarterfinal and were defeated again by Taiwan in a classification match for fifth place.
In the classification match for seventh or eighth, the 2.21-meter-tall Ha Seung-jin didn't play. Instead, the only university student, Oh Se-keun of Chung-Ang University, poured 31 points and Kim Joo-sung of the Dongbu Promy and Kang Byung-hyun of the KCC Egis aided with 15 and 10 points.
The seventh-placed finish was Korea's worst ever showing the tournament. The team will return home on Monday.