HK beats S. Korea in ABC c'ship

JAKARTA (JP): Hong Kong's Regal beat South Korea's KIA Timor 64-59 (26-32) at the eighth Asia Basketball Confederation (ABC) championship on Friday.

The host team, Aspac, finished third after beating Japan's Isuzu Motor 78-52 (27-25).

During Friday's finals, Regal and KIA Timor exhibited their skill in the first 10 minutes, forcing a 12-12 tie.

But four minutes before the end of the first round, KIA Timor player Clifford Aaron Reed fell and suffered an ankle injury.

Without Reed, KIA Timor started to lose confidence and Regal's Wayman Strickland and John Spencer stepped up their efforts to score points.

At halftime, Regal coach Cheng Wai Ming changed his team's strategy to strengthen the defense and the match concluded with a score of 64-59.

Aspac, which has basketball players from the 19th SEA Games in the team, became the first ASEAN country to finish in the top three.

Satisfaction

The Indonesian Basketball Association chairman Harmoko expressed his satisfaction with Aspac's results. Last year Indonesia finished fifth.

"I always pray that our team can get through to the final. Unfortunately we lost in the semis," he said, as quoted by Antara.

By finishing third, Indonesia will be among the strongest basketball countries in Asia, Harmoko said.

Strickland of Regal was named the best player, DH Kang of KIA Timor was picked as the best playmaker and AF Rinaldo was selected as the best three point shooter. (yan)