Xirelijiang Mugetear (left) of the Chinese mainland shields the ball in the final basketball match against Chinese Taipei on Monday at the East Asian Games in North China's Tianjin. Photo: CFP

Two months after the mainland men's basketball team's humiliating defeat to Chinese Taipei at the Asian Championship, the second-string mainland team - made up of players who are under 24 - restored some pride for the mainland team against Chinese Taipei, as they dominated the most of Monday's East Asian Games final, but were overtaken in the last minute of the match in Tianjin.

When the game had only 61 seconds left, the mainland side were in the lead 79-78, but a three-pointer from Ke Chi-hao when there was only 25.7 seconds to go reversed the lead.

After Zhai Xiaochuan failed to make his shot from beyond the arc count, Tseng Wen-ting's free throw added one more point for Chinese Taipei, ending the final at 79-82.

The Chinese Taipei squad was composed of the players who finished the Asian Championship in fourth place.

Xirelijiang Mugetear, a 22-year-old Uyghur point guard from the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers, scored the match-high 23 points, while Chinese Taipei's Lin Chih-chieh contributed 21 points to his team's win.

"Tiredness impaired our scoring after 40 minutes of playing and we had an all-out game yesterday (on Sunday against South Korea)," Xirelijiang said.

Xirelijiang also expressed his views on Sun Tonglin's injury as a turning point of the match. "We were badly ­affected both in attacking and defending after Sun was injured. He is the key when playing inside," he said.

Sun fell over as he made a heavy backside down when vying for the ball with Chinese Taipei's Lin, which paused the last quarter for more than five minutes.

Sun scored 12 points and grabbed 12 rebounds during his 31 minutes of court time.

The mainland team's head coach Fan Bin said after the match, "I'm proud of my players' performance as they only had six days to work together. The result is beyond my expectations.

"They lacked experience in defending … It's a pity to lose but I think the result is acceptable."

However, former head coach Bob ­Donewald had a different idea, stating on his Tencent Weibo, "Fan left his point guard sitting on the bench too long.

"Xira [Xirelijiang] was great at the 2 guard position [shooting guard] with the PG [point guard] getting him the ball. Then coach Fan changed the substitution, put Xira on the ball and that helped Taipei keep him from scoring because they were trapping him. And that is why China lost."

Chinese Taipei's head coach Hsu Chin-che also pointed out that these mainland junior players had a better game than the previous team.

"They played positively, never gave up any of the chances. This is what the first team lacks," he said.

"Their 16 three-pointers really hurt my side … they are progressing since their first match at the Games."

Global Times