Asian Games 2018: Round-Up of Day 5 Basketball Results

With a break on Saturday for the opening ceremony of the Asian Games, the Basketball action at the GBK Basketball hall in Jakarta, Indonesia tipped off once again for the fixtures on Day 5 - All of which were women's 5*5. Of the four matches scheduled, there were a couple from each group.

Chinese Taipei 84-61 India [Group A]

Chinese Taipei won registered their third win in as many games to continue to stay atop Group X with six points and a point differential of 55. The first half with a close contest as the Indians fought hard to trail only 5 points at halftime but Chinese Taipei blew the game open in the third quarter when they outscored the Indians 31-17.

For more on this game, read a detailed match report here.

Japan 107-35 Mongolia [Group B]

As of Day 5, the squad from Japan are table toppers of Group B with 2 wins in 3 games and a point differential of 117. [Note: China has played only 2 games so far]

As the scoreline might suggest, Japan absolutely dominated every stat category that there is. They recorded an assist on every one of their 37 field goals, they only turned the ball over 10 times and had four players score in double figures led by Mio Shinozki - 19 points. At the other end of the spectrum was Mongolia. They turned the ball over 30 times and only had one player score more than 5 points - Murat Bulbul, who had 19 points. In two of the four quarters, Mongolia failed to score than 5 points in a quarter.

Despite the huge loss, Mongolia had won their previous group game against Hong Kong, thus are still on track to make it through to the Quarterfinals.

Thailand 86-76 Hong Kong

Thailand's Pimchosita Supyen (L) against Hong Kong

After a crushing 68-point loss to China in their opening fixture of the tournament, Thailand gained some much-needed motivation with their narrow 10-point win over Hong Kong.

In a close game, where both teams were more or less equal in all stat categories, what was possibly the game-altering stat was Thailand's shooting. They shot 53% from the field [30-of-57], far better than Hong Kong that shot at a clip of 34%. Both teams were more or less equal with respect to turnovers [19-18] and steals [11-9].

Thailand had as many as four players score in double figures for them, led by Maihom Thidaporn - 24 points. On the other hand, Hong Kong were for the most part led by the duo of Wong Ka Man and Li Tsz Kwan, who combined for 45 of the team's 76 points.

Kazakhstan 85-73 Indonesia

In Group A, the top 2 teams were always going to be Chinese Taipei and the Unified Korean Team, so the other Quarterfinals spots were going to be decided between India, Kazakhstan and the hosts Indonesia. Huge credit to Kazakhstan because they have registered wins against both India and Indonesia, which essentially makes the battle between latter nations a fight for the last QF spot.

The hosts made eventually cut the margin of defeat to just 12 points by outscoring Kazakhstan 29-19 in the final quarter but the game was over in the first three quarters as Indonesia trailed by 22 [66-44].

It was Kazakhstan's superior shooting from the field - 54% from the field, 30% from beyond the arc and 69% [9-of-13] from the free-throw line. Their spectacular shooting allowed them to dominate the game despite turning the ball over 27 times and allowing Indonesia to record 22 steals. They were led in scoring by Kondrakova Nadezhda - 18 points.