China wrapped up their first-round competitions by trouncing Qatar 92-61 to top group C in Tianjin on Saturday at the 25th FIBA Asian Men's Championships.
Japan made one of the most lop-sided victory in the Asian basketball history as they humiliated Sri Lanka by 148-45 in an early match.
Five Chinese players scored double-digit numbers as Wang Zhizhi and Liu Wei led by 15 points each.
After a tight first eight minutes, China broke out towards the end of the first quarter, which they won 23-12 and hammered down the victory before the break to lead 49-28.
Qatar, which finished second in the group, were held to nine points and trailed as many as 76-37 in the third quarter. China used their second team in the fourth period.
The 103-deficit is one of the most lop-sided matches in the tournament history. China had the record of the most one-sided game in the Asian history as they defeated Indonesia 138-31 at the version of 1985.
Eight of the nine pitched Japanese players had at least 11 points with Yusuke Okada leading the team by 30 points, all from 3-pointers.
Japan led 36-11 in the first quarter and 72-21 on the break. They held Sri Lanka, which lost all three games in the tournament, to nine points and scored 41 points in the final period.
Jordan finished atop in group A as they won the third consecutive game by beating United Arab Emirates 79-67. Islam Abbaas had 16 points and 12 rebounds for Jordan.
In other Saturday afternoon's matches, Chinese Taipei beat Uzbekistan 102-78, Iran defeated Kuwait 94-46, Kazakhstan edged off India 74-72, South Korea beat Philippines 69-56 while Lebanon thrashed Indonesia 123-36.
The tournament will take one day off on Sunday with the top three teams of each group to play the round-robin second phase on Monday.
(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2009)
