Wang Zhizhi of China goes up to score against Mame Souleye Ndour of Qatar (right) during their quarterfinal on Wednesday. China won 71-66 to reach the semifinals.[Photo/AFP]

GUANGZHOU - Reigning champion China beat Qatar 71-66 in basketball on Wednesday and will face rival Iran, who crushed Jordan 67-43, for a place in the gold medal match at the Asian Games.

In early games, Korea beat the Philippines 74-66, while a big and quick Japanese team dispatched DPR Korea 92-75 to set up Thursday's other semifinal between the East Asian winners.

China used a 10-2 scoring run to end the first half at 36-25 before a boisterous hometown crowd, but the disciplined Qataris persisted, closing the gap to 66-64 with 90 seconds remaining.

But a three pointer in the final minute by former Dallas Maverick Wang Zhizhi gave China a 69-64 lead, sealing the win and ending Qatar's hopes of repeating its silver medal performance at the 2006 Doha Asiad.

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China was led by Wang with 18 points, while Targuy Ngombo paced Qatar with 24.

Korea jumped to a 12-point lead in the third quarter and held on to defeat a determined Philippines side with a balanced attack led by Oh Se-keun's 19 points and nine rebounds.

The winner shot 48 percent from the field and hit six three pointers, including three from captain Kim Sung-chul and two by American import Lee Seung-jun.

"The Philippines is a really tough team. Today it was really hard to pull out the win," said Lee, who scored 12 points and blocked three shots.

"Today my offense was not so good, I had to do something for my team and concentrated on defense and rebounds."

The Philippines was led by Pauliasi Taulava with 23 points, while Kelly Williams scored eight points and snared eight rebounds.

Meanwhile, Japan dominated the DPRK in every category including rebounds and assists, jumping out to a 20-point lead at halftime, but more importantly allowed its starters extra rest for the semifinal.

"We managed the playing time. We have a challenge with Korea tomorrow so we want to have fresh legs," said Japan's US coach Thomas Wisman.

"We're going to run (against Korea), we will give it our best shot, we want to play our game."

Japan was led by guards Hiroyuki Kinoshita and Takumi Ishizaki with 16 points a piece, while Sin Kum-byol led DPR Korea with 22 points.

Iran had an easy time beating Jordan with veteran point guard Mahdi Kamrani pushing the attack, while the frontline controlled the boards and anchored a stingy defense that gave up only 17 first-half points.

Kamrani led Iran with 16 points while forward Hamed Afagh had 17.

In last year's Asian basketball championship game in China, Iran beat the host team 70-52 for its second straight title and will look to repeat that feat.