WUHAN, China (26th FIBA Asia Championship): 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.

Japan went ahead early in the game with a 10-0 run, but Taipei hit back midway and kept breathing down their rivals necks.

Kosuke Takeuchi’s 16 points and a tournament-high 22 rebounds led Japan.

“As far as rankings are concerned it is an improvement. But I am not happy about that,” said Japan coach Tom Wisman.

“I think we could have finished a lot higher. Our aim was a top-four finish, but I think we were capable of finishing 5th,” said Wisman.

“But I guess these are disappointments we have to gulp and learn. We played some good basketball, but at times we looked very bad. We’ll get back to the drawing board and rework our plans,” he said.

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