Korea to face Jordan in men's basketball quarterfinals at Asiad
Korea's Lee Jung-hyun celebrates after a drive and an old-fashioned three-point play during a men's basketball qualifying match against Japan at Aichi International Arena in Nagoya, Japan, Sunday, as part of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. Yonhap
Korea will be up against Jordan in the quarterfinals of the men's basketball tournament at the Asian Games this week in central Japan.
Coached by Nikolajs Mazurs, Korea will play its first knockout game of the Asian Games at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Aichi International Arena in Nagoya.
The preliminary round of the competition wrapped up with two games on Monday, a day after Korea had clinched the top seed out of Group A with a 100-83 victory over Japan.
China, after routing the Philippines 105-61 on Monday, topped Group C with three straight wins and also finished first overall in the group phase thanks to its +128 point differential.
Korea also won all three group games but had a +87 point differential.
The six other teams headed to the quarterfinals are Iran, Japan, Chinese Taipei, Bahrain, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
The top two teams were to play either the No. 7 or No. 8 seed. But since Korea and the eighth-seed Saudi Arabia were in the same group, they could not face each other again in the knockout round — thus setting up the South Korea-Jordan battle.
Korea is trying to claim its first Asian Games men's hoops gold since 2014.
For Korea, Davidson product Lee Hyun-jung is leading the way by averaging 21 points per game. He ranks second overall in the tournament with eight steals in three games.