INQUIRER Sports

TEHRAN, Iran—China exploited its height advantage to the hilt and manhandled the Philippines, 86-63, to improve its final ranking in the consolation round of the Fiba-Asia Championship for junior men at the Azadi Stadium here.

Seven-footers Wang Zheng and Li Xiaoxu asserted themselves in the paint and joined forces with the 6-foot-10 sibling tandem of Ren Junfei and Ren Junwei in pummeling the Nokia-RP Youth Team from start to finish.

There were a few streaks of brilliant plays from Filipino-Canadian Matthew Wright and Ryan Roose Garcia that forced a deadlock at 42 but that was the best the RP dribblers, whose tallest player is the 6-foot-5 Ian Sangalang, could muster.

Garcia’s three-pointer and a short jumper by Wright locked the count at 42-all midway in the third quarter before the Chinese cashed in on a string of passing errors and turnovers to pull away for good.

Ren Junfei poured in most of his game-high 27 points at the height of the RP team’s collapse as the Chinese built a 66-50 lead entering the deciding period.

China battles Korea for fifth place Saturday.

As for the RP youth squad, it will go up against Lebanon in the duel for seventh place in the final rankings. Lebanon lost to Korea, 93-72, in the other consolation-round pairing.

In the medal round, Iran slipped past Syria, 80-78, to arrange a championship face-off with Kazakhstan, which had an easy time dumping Japan, 103-78, in the other semifinal match.

By entering the Finals, Kazakhstan and host Iran have already booked two tickets to the Fiba World U19 Championships in New Zealand next year.

The winner between Syria and Japan in the battle for third will complete the three Asian slots for the tournament.

The RP squad flies back to the country on Sunday and is scheduled to host a thanksgiving dinner with patrons TAO Corp. and Nokia Philippines and members of the media on Tuesday evening.

The Scores:

CHINA 86—Ren Junfei 27, Wang 14, Li 13, Yu 10, Cao 8, Ren Junwei 5, Sui 5, Zhao 2, Dong 2.

PHILIPPINES 63—Wright 16, De Guzman 10, Mendoza 7, Garcia 6, Sangalang 6, Tolentino 4, Golla 4, Banal 2, Torres 2.

Quarters: 17-11, 38-32, 66-50, 86-63