The Chinese men's national basketball team defeated the national squad of Japan with a 75-67 victory in the 2016 FIBA Asia Challenge to end the tournament as the fifth-best side in Tehran, Iran on Sunday.

China's young center Hu Jinqiu paced the 2015 FIBA Asia Championship winning squad to their fifth victory in eight games played at the international tournament with another spectacular double-double performance of a team-high 18 points and 16 rebounds along with one blocked shot.

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The 18-year-old Chinese player went 8 for 16 from the field for a decent 50 percent shooting clip in 35.10 minutes of playing. Forwards Liu Zhixuan and Zhao Yanhao added 17 points and 12 points respectively for the winners.

China began the first two-quarters of the game with a strong start and entered the second half of the game with a seven-point lead 34-27.  The Chinese men, who outrebounded the Japanese with a 44-27 advantage, continued to stick to their game plan and staged a 19-15 run in the third frame to further stretch their lead to 11 points, 53-42 entering the final ten minutes of the classification match.

In the fourth period of the game, Japan was able to put up a 25-22 charge, but it was not enough to steal the game from China.

China kicked off their FIBA Asia Challenge campaign with a rousing start, defeating Jordan, Kazakhstan, and the Philippines in the preliminary round of the group phase. However, in the second round of the tournament, China suffered its first loss of the tournament against India but immediately bounced back by beating Chinese Taipei.

In the quarterfinal stage, Iraq stunned China with an 85-79 upset victory to advance to the final four of the international basketball tournament.

Tags2016 fiba asia challenge, chinese men's national basketball team, fiba world rankings