Basketball-Qatar advances, S. Korea scared

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-12-06 11:15

Qatar advanced into the quarter-finals of the Doha Asian Games men's basketball tournament after holding off Jordan 71-64 for a third straight win here on Tuesday.

Special coverage: Doha Asian Games
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The host team, third-place winner at the Asian Championship in Doha in 2005, secured a top four finish in its second round round- robin group and a berth in the knock-out stage.

Qatar, who had easy victories over Syria and Bahrain in its last two games, met serious challenge this time. Jordan jumped to an 11-5 lead and held it to 14-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Cheered on by dozens of chanting and drumming home fans, Qatar outscored Jordan 20-6 in the second quarter for a half-time lead at 32-20.

After the hosts enlarged the gap to 56-36 at the end of the third quarter, Jordan fought bravely to pull within 65-62 with two minutes remaining, but that's the closet they could go. Omar Abdelkader Salem and Erfan Ali Saeed made five straight free throws to make it 71-62 with 29 seconds to go.

"We didn't play well, we didn't handle the pressure they brought in the second half," said Qatar's American head coach Joseph Stiebing. "We gonna go back and practice and get better with that."

"We are happy with Salem coming up and hit some big throws in the final minutes," Stiebing added.

Saeed led Qatar with 20 points and eight rebounds with Saad Abdulrahman Ali adding 16 points.

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