Aspac on way to semis

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's Aspac has a greater chance to advance to the semifinals of the 8th Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) Champions Cup here after defeating two teams in the qualifying round.

Aspac ousted the Philippines' Tanduay Gold 75-63 on the third day of the championship yesterday.

It also won the match against MHSK 72-63 on the second day of the championship here Saturday.

In other matches yesterday, Hong Kong's Regal beat Uzbekistan's MHSK 87-83 and South Korea's KIA Motors defeated Singapore's Tong Whye 105-92.

Japan's Isuzu Motors played against Iran's Zob Ahan yesterday.

On Saturday, Aspac played well in the second half after fighting back from a deficit of four points 38-42 in the first half.

Aspac's foreign player Boby Parks was the top scorer for his team with 22 points.

Sergei Demurin and Mikhail Shafenkov each had 16 points for MHSK.

In other matches Saturday, KIA Motors beat Zob Ahan 80-69, China's PLA Hongshan defeated Tong Whye 98-74 and Regal ousted Malaysia's Petronas 77-66.

KIA had a slim 44-42 lead against Zob Ahan in the first half but widened the gap with strong shooting and defense in the second half to claim a 80-69 win.

KIA's foreign player Aaron Reed led KIA's scoring effort with 20 points while South Korean Kim Jung-in and Kang Dong-hee each had 13 points. Despite Zob Ahan's effort, he failed to match KIA's shooting and speed.

Leading scorers for Zob Ahan were Mohsen Sadeghzadeh with 23 points and Mehdi Izadpanah with 14.

Four matches are to be held today; Tong Whye versus Isuzu Motors, MHSK versus Petronas, Tanduay Gold versus Regal and PLA Hongshan against KIA Motors.

Today is a rest day for Aspac and Zob Ahan.

Aspac is set to meet Regal, Zob Ahan will compete against Tong Whye, Petronas against Tanduay Gold and Isuzu Motors versus Pla Hongshan tomorrow.

Four winning teams are scheduled to advance to the semifinals on July 24.

Ten top basketball clubs in Asia are participating in the one- week championship through to July 25. (03)