Japan kept a fighting Chinese Taipei at bay and posted a 81-72 win in the seventh place play-off in an improvement of their 10th place ranking two years ago. Taipei, who had finished 6th at Tianjin in 2009, finished two notches below.

Korea, perhaps jolted by defending champion Iran’s defeat at the hands of the unfancied Jordan in the previous game, left nothing to chance, and doubt early on, and cruised along thereafter for a 86-67 win against fellow East Asian team and archrivals Japan on Friday.

Hosts China scored the first five points of the game and never trailed before handing out a 84-58 defeat to fellow East Asian team Japan to bring the curtain down on the Second Round and head into the quarterfinals with their confidence supremely high.

Philippines ran a 26-12 third quarter – which included a 10-0 run which brought them back into the reckoning in the game – that eventually helped them beat Japan 83-76 thus handing the latter’s first defeat in the competition here.

Japan took control of the proceedings early in their Group F game early and then cruised along to beat United Arab Emirates 101-61 on Monday.