Qatar down Korea to seal quarter final place

CHANGSHA-HUNAN (2015 FIBA Asia Championship) - Qatar overcame an early deficit and beat Korea 69-63 on Monday to clinch a spot in the Quarter-Finals of the FIBA Asia Championship.

The Koreans coming off an 85-71 triumph over Lebanon scored the game's first eight points and led 12-2 but Qatar controlled the tempo and fought their way back taking a 35-31 advantage to half-time.

Getting 16 points from their 33-year-old center Mohd Mohamed and solid contributions from Ali Saad Trey Johnson (both15pts) and Khalid Suliman Abdi (10pts) Qatar had the balanced scoring attack they needed. Qatar also had good overall good defense on the Korean shooters who made just six of 25 (24 percent) from long range.

Turning point: Korea needed just a minute and 20 seconds to trim a 64-54 deficit to 64-62 with 3:14 remaining after back-to-back three-balls from Seounghyun Lee and Yang Donggeun and a jumper from Jonghyun Lee. But Johnson stopped the comeback in its tracks with a jump shot to make it 66-62 with 2:24 to go. Korea scored just one more point the rest of the way.

FIBA