DOHA, Qatar, September 16 (Xinhua) -- Houston Rockets center Yao Ming had 27 points and 15 rebounds to give China the biggest-margin win in the history over South Korea by 93-49 on Thursday in the semi-finals of the men's Asian Basketball Championships here.
The 2.26-meter pivot also had three assists and two blocks when he shot 10-out-of-17 in the field to set up a final against Lebanon, who disposed off the hostage Qatar 83-79 in earlier game.
South Korea, who was tagged as the best-shooting team in Asia, was only 5-out-of-18 on 3-pointers, and was held to only two points in the third quarter.
Power forward Du Feng, who had 14 points, was perfect on shooting in the field, including three 3-pointers when China shot 8-out-of-20 from behind the arc.
Veteran center Seo Jang Hoon buried two 3-pointers to open the game and built up a 24-17 lead for the Koreans in the first quarter.
Coming back with strong defence in the second quarter, China took the lead with Yao's layup to make it 28-27 and ran to a 48-33 lead to call the breaker.
The Koreans did not make a shot until Choo Seung Gyun's jumper stopped the scoring drought when China had put the game beyond doubt at 71-35 with 2:15 to go in the third quarter.
"This is the best game China has ever played against the Koreans. I don't think any team, even the US team, could hold South Korea to only two points in a quarter," said Yao, who had his 25-year-old birthday on Monday.
"Yao is the player that every team wants to have," China's head coach Jonas Kaslauskas said. "He's in good shape and he wants to play. He's the reason we could come back in the second quarter and beat them by big margin."
Lebanon, who lost to China in the second phase of the tournament by 87-73, upset Qatar in a hard-fought close match.
The teams exchanged the lead by 20 times and tied it six times with none had a double-digital lead throughout the match-up.
Point guard Rony Fahed, who had the game-high 25 points, chipped in two 3-pointers in row while Brian Feghali made another 3-point play to give Lebanon the lead for good at 78-73 with 1:30 left.
El Khatib contributed 24 points for Lebanon while Ali Turki Ali led Qatar by 17 points.
China and Lebanon had already claim the berths to next year's World Championships while Qatar had to vie South Korea, whom it beat 83-65 in the second round, for the last hope to qualify.
