Japan-Qatar the 4th FIBA Asia Cup

Tokyo, September 14 (QNA) - Hosts Japan took an early stranglehold of their Group B (The 4th FIBA Asia Cup) Prelim Round game against Qatar, then loosened a wee bit midway through, but came back with a vengeance to finish the opening day s proceedings with a 73-69 win in Group B Prelim Round on Friday. In a veritable battle of veteran spearheads, where Japan s JR Sakuragi s efforts bore fruit, and triumphant success, was in the support he got from his younger teammates the tested Kosuke Takeuchi and the talented Kosuke Kanamaru coming out with flying colors Qatar s seasoned duo of Yasseen Ismail and Erfan Ali ploughed rather lonely furrows. "This team is as good as new," said Japan coach Kimikazu Suzuki himself returning on the hot seat after a five-year gap the 24th FIBA Asia Championship at Tokushima in 2007 was his last stint as the coach of the Japanese team. "Don t forget this is the first international game for this team together," he added. "We had to tweak our line up at the eleventh hour, which is not easy when you are preparing for a competition like this," Suzuki said drawing attention to the ankle injury Joji Takeuchi suffered only a couple of days ago. "We had to change a few plans. But I am very happy we won against such an experienced and strong team," he said.