Korea dumps sluggish Kazakhstan 71-47
Skill and selflessness trumped size and strength late Tuesday night as Korea dropped Kazakhstan 71-47 to virtually gain a stranglehold on the Group F second slot of the 2013 FIBA Asia Basketball Championship.
The Koreans put on a clinic of team-first Basketball to overwhelm the Central Asians at the Mall of Asia Arena in the final game of the day, hours after Gilas Pilipinas defeated Qatar 80-70.
22-year old Kim Min Goo and Kim Sun Hyung led Korea with fourteen points apiece as Korea improves to 3-1 in Group F. Yoo Jae-Hak's squad finishes group play against India on Wednesday.
With undefeated Iran also heavily favored to stop the Kazakhs on Wednesday and gain the Group F top slot, Korea is likely locked into the second seed, since they too are expected to hurdle the Indians. In fact because of point differential, even an unlikely Korean loss to India and a Kazakhstan upset of Iran will probably not be enough to overturn the seedings.
With the Group E picture still muddled, it's unclear though who Korea meets in the quarter finals. Undefeated Chinese Taipei, Qatar, or the Philippines could still gain the top spot as of press time.
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Kazakhstan is probably through to the elite eight as well, since Bahrain (1-3), the only team that can catch them for the Group F 4th slot, faces defending champs China on Wednesday.
Korea looked the sharper outfit from the get-go, with their slick passing game leading to a 13-4 first quarter advantage.
Only eight first quarter points from Kazakhstan's American-born point guard, Jerri Johnson, kept it close as the first period ended 16-14 in favor of the East Asians.
Korea uncorked an 8-0 run to begin the second stanza that included two three pointers from Kim Min Goo and a rare five-point play when Kim muffed the free throw of an and-one but eventually got the ball back and buried a triple. Kim finished with three triples in total, and also notched a shot block on Nikolay Bazhin.
Korea finished the half leading 38-27.
The two-time Asian champs refused to let up in the second twenty minutes, forcing scores of Kazakhstan turnovers and seeing their tall but clumsy opponents founder time and time again near the basket.
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Kazakhstan mustered only 20 points in the second half, nine of which came from three treys from Timor Sultanov. The 47 points the Kazakhs scored in the entire game matches the first-half output of the Philippines in their win over Qatar.
The usually animated coach of Kazakhstan, Italian Matteo Boniciolli, spent most of the second half morosely seated on the bench, hardly communicating anything to his players. His team looked nothing like the squad that gave China fits before falling 73-67 on Monday.
Johnson's 15 points, all in the first half, led Kazakhstan. Johnson slipped three times on the FIBA sticker on the middle of the court that covers the Mall of Asia logo.
Kazakh big man Anton Ponomarev, who some pundits say belongs in the NBA, could do no better than six points, thanks to inconsistent shooting.
Starring also for Korea were Cho Sung-min with 12 markers and Lee Jong Hyun with eight.
Follow Bob on Twitter @bhobg333.
