Great Wall crumbles: Chinese Taipei dethrones China, 96-78

MANILA, Philippines – Chinese Taipei used a big third quarter run to dethrone defending champion China in a shocking 96-78 upset in the quarterfinal round of the 2013 Manila FIBA Asia Men’s Basketball Championship at the Mall of Asia Arena on Friday night.

Chinese Taipei outscored China, 31-12, in a big third quarter explosion that overturned a 10-point China halftime lead.

The Taiwanese rallied behind the inside presence of naturalized player Quincy Davis and their outside sniping as the once mighty 17-point (41-24) China lead suddenly crumbled.

Davis’ alley-oop play capped off a 15-0 run by the Taiwanese bridging the second and early part of the third quarter.

Yi Jianlian gave China its final lead, 52-50, before Tien Lei’s triple ignited a furious 21-12 exchange that gave Taipei a nine-point edge, 71-62, into the fourth quarter.

China never knew what hit them as Taipei continued to pour the heat in the payoff period.

“Never give up,” Chin-Che Hsu told reporters after the game.

Hsu rallied his troops by reminding them how they dug themselves up from large deficits against Jordan and Philippines in the early rounds of the tournament.

And they responded big in the second half.

Davis outplayed Yi finishing with 27 points missing only once on 13 attempts against the latter’s 22 points on 11-of-17 shooting. The two giants cancelled out each other in the rebounding department with 10 each.

The biggest revelation for Chinese Taipei was Tsai Wne-Cheng who wound up with 21 points, 15 coming in the second half where they turned the game around.

Lin Chih-Chieh and Tien added 17 and 13 points, respectively.

The Taiwanese were so red-hot as they shot 60 percent from the field including 10 of 20 triples.

Their lethal outside shooting will be tested in the semifinals against the imposing size of Iran, the winners of the 2007 and 2009 edition.