By Anil John/Incheon

Later, China ended Qatar’s medal hopes in volleyball with a 25-23, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21 victory in the quarter-finals at the Songnim Gymnasium here yesterday.

In a marathon match lasting one hour and 58 minutes, it was the Chinese who won the big points to stay on course for their third gold in Asian Games basketball after winning the title in 1990 and 2010 when they hosted the event.

China, whose basketball medal hopes were ruined when they failed to make the semi-finals after going down to their first-ever loss against Japan, stunned Qatar with a sensational scoring display in the first quarter which gave them a massive 29-10 advantage.

Qatar never recovered from that onslaught, and although they managed to score a whopping 20 points in the second quarter, the Chinese stayed comfortably ahead to close out the match.

Mohamed Baker scored a game-high 24 points but the rest of the team failed to fire as China enjoyed leads of 40-35 and 61-43 after the second and third quarters.

A last period fightback, which saw Qatar score 17 points while China managed just nine, was a creditable effort although it came a tad too late.

“We let them score too freely in the first quarter and that took the match away from us,” said Qatar coach Vasileios Fragkias.

“China are the giants of Asian basketball and when you let them take a big early advantage you can’t do much about it later,” he conceded.

Gao Ailun and the 7’1” Zhou Qi excelled for the defending champions with 15 points each, while Ding Yanyuhang contributed 13.

Gao had a 100% record from the four free throws he took and scored three from the three-point mark from the five chances he got. The 7ft tall Wang Zhelin also proved a pain for the Qatar defence, scoring 11 crucial points

“It was disappointing for us as the defending champions to not make the semi-finals, so I guess we have to take the fifth place as a matter of some consolation,” China coach Gong Luming said.

China have won the Asian Games basketball gold seven times and their shock 79-72 loss to Japan was a result nobody could stomach back home.

Qatar were hampered by an injury to their captain and talisman Yaseen Musa, who only managed to see a few minutes of action in the tournament and missed completely yesterday’s game.

Qatar’s best finish at the Asian Games is second – a feat achieved in Doha in 2006.

Meanwhile South Korea set up a gold medal clash with Iran after beating Japan 71-63 in tense encounter.

Both teams were neck and neck until the midway stage before South Korea pulled 49-43 clear at the end of the third quarter and then continued to stay ahead to clinch victory.

In the other semi-final, Iran prevailed over Kazakhstan 80-78