China, Senegal win continental U18 events, book U19 Worlds spots

China came back to beat Korea to win the 2012 FIBA Asia U18 Championship while Senegal knocked off Ivory Coast to claim gold at the 2012 FIBA Africa U18 Championship with all four teams and Asian bronze winners Iran booking their spots in the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship.

China trailed by 13 points in the fourth quarter but won their 10th U18 gold with a thrilling 93-91 victory over Korea. Korean superstar Lee Jong Hyun gave his team a 91-88 lead with two free throws with 21 seconds left. But Wang Zhelin nailed a three to even the game with 17 seconds left and Gao Shang hit the winner with four seconds to play.

Wang and Gao were the saviors for China all game as Wang collected 30 points and 13 rebounds and Gao had 28 points and 9 rebounds in the final.

Lee, who played for Korea at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament earlier this summer, led the silver medalists with 24 points, 7 rebounds and 4 blocks.

China, who will make their ninth appearance at the U19 Worlds, repeated their U18 Asia crown from 2010 in Sana’a and have now collected nine of the last 14 U18 FIBA Asia golds. Korea have not won the tournament since 2000, finishing runner-up four times, including three of the last four events to China.

Lee was disappointed about finishing second and is looking forward to the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship in Czech Republic.


“Before we went to Mongolia the goal was to win. We are really frustrated about losing the final,” said Lee, who helped Korea to their fifth U19 World Championship

“The objective was to qualify for the Worlds and we did that. But if we face China there I will really want to win.

Iran qualified for the U19 Worlds for just the third time following 2003 and 2009 by beating Japan 87-83 for the bronze medal.

The tournament next summer in Czech Republic will see two newcomers from Africa as Senegal beat Ivory Coast 71-62 in the FIBA U18 Africa Championship title game.

Senegal, who beat Mali in the Semi-Finals, celebrated their first ever U18 Africa Championship after having only collected bronze in 1982. Ivory Coast, the 2013 FIBA Africa Championship hosts, picked up their first U18 medal after knocking off two-time reigning champions Egypt in the Semis.

With the addition of the five teams, there is only one spot remaining in the 16-team field with Australia playing New Zealand in a best-of-three showdown in late September.

The other nations at the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship are hosts Czech Republic, Croatia, reigning champions Lithuania, Russia, Serbia and Spain from Europe; and Argentina, Brazil, Canada and the United States from the FIBA Americas.

FIBA