China opened up the game right at the start of the second half, and then held fort to stop a feisty Korea in their tracks with a 56-43 verdict that put the hosts in their second successive – and 16th overall – appearance in a FIBA Asia Championship gold medal game.

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.

Iranian spearhead Samad Bahrami started the game alright, but played less than 20 minutes being carried out in the third quarter causing a quite a flutter among the discerning at the Wuhan Sports Center. But by then 28-year-old had put Team Melli well on course the twice defending champions held fort to beat a pesky Korea 79-62.

Korea coach Hur Jae is a man of very few words. The regulars to the post-game conferences here would vouch that there is not more than a mono syllable answer that you can expect from the 46-year-old. Probably, he doesn’t need to since his team takes care of the most of the action on the court without any trouble as they did against Chinese Taipei in their 82-61 win.

Naturalized forward Moon Tae Jong nee Jarod Stevenson scored a game-high 21 points all in the first half – 15 of them in the first quarter to put Korea in control right from the start, from where the East Asian team just rolled on to maintain their unbeaten status beating Uzbekistan 106-57 in Group E on Monday.