CHINESE Taipei easily achieved what Gilas Pilipinas barely accomplished against Saudi Arabia in the 27th Fiba Asia Championship.
Lu Cheng-ju fired seven three-pointers to finish with 25 points and naturalized center Quincy Davis III had 14 points and 10 rebounds as the Taiwanese blasted the Saudis, 90-67, yesterday at Mall of Asia Arena.
The victory was never in doubt after Chinese Taipei zoomed to an early 31-14 lead on the sniping of Lu and Creighton Douglas.
The Taiwanese sank 17 of 38 three-point attempts with Douglas knocking down four threes for their second straight victory in Group A following their 91-87 conquest of 2011 runner-up Jordan Thursday.
Gilas didn’t have the same shooting touch when it downed the Saudis by 12 points on Thursday night. The team of PBA stars were eight of 26 from the three-point zone.
In yesterday’s opening game, China vented its ire on Malaysia, 113-22, in Group C a day after absorbing a stunning loss to South Korea.
The winning margin topped by a point Iran’s 90-point rout of the same Malaysian squad, 115-25, the other day.
Center Wang Zhelin banged in 21 points and former NBA slotman Wang Zhizhi added 17 to the cause of the Chinese, who cruised to victory after opening a crippling 31-2 tear.
Japan leaned on point guard Naoto Tsuji and big man Kosuke Takeuchi to subdue Hong Kong, 76-59, in Group B action.
The Japanese, who suffered a narrow defeat to Qatar, 74c-75, cut loose in the third period after a gritty Hong Kong let its guard down.
The scores:
First Game
CHINA 113—Zhelin Wang 21, Zhizhi Wang 17, Guo 16, Zhu 16, Zhou 9, Zhang 8, Li 8, Liu 7, Sun 6, S. Wang 5, Chen 0.
MALAYSIA 22—Ooi 9, Foong 4, Gan 3, Tong 2, Kuek 2, C. Wong 2, Soo 0, Ng 0, W. Wong 0, Choo 0, Mak 0.
Quarters: 31-2, 55-12, 79-19, 113-22
Second Game
CHINESE TAIPEI 90—Lu 25, Creighton 16, Davis III 14, Tsai 8, Lin 7, Tien 6, Yang 6, Chou 4, Hung 3, Chen 1, Tseng 0, Lee 0.
SAUDI ARABIA 67—A. Almuwallad 15, M. Almuwallad 14, Kabe 10, Mohammed Almarwani 6, Abo Jalas 6, Alsager 6, Mathna Almarwani 4, Abujabal 4, Alhwsawi 1, Belal 1, Almukhtar 0.
Quarters: 31-14, 48-34, 65-46, 90-67
Third Game
JAPAN 76—Tsuji 17, Takeuchi 12, Sakuragi 10, Kanamaru 10, Hiejima 6, Tanaka 6, Ota 4, Watanabe 4, Ichioka 3, Kurihara 2, Sakurai 2, Matsui 0, Watanabe 0.
HONG KONG 59—Wong 23, Reid 10, Li 9, Y. Chan 8, S. Chan 5, Tung Leung Lau 2, Szeto 2, Tsz Lai Lau 0, Fong 0.
Quarters: 25-24, 41-40, 64-53, 76-59