China and South Korea rolled on to set up a tough semifinal matchup of the men's basketball competition at the Asian Games on Wednesday.

China edged off Qatar 71-66 in a re-match of the finals in the 2002 Doha Asiad, while South Korea toppled the hot Philippines 74-66.

Japan and Iran advanced in style as Japan crushed the Democratic People's Republic of Korea 92-75, and Iran saw off Jordan 67-43.

South Korea will face Japan while China take on Iran in the semifinals on Friday.

China, which beat Qatar 59-44 in the last version's finals, encountered the toughest defence from Qatar but hung on for a difficult win.

The host team slowly built up a 36-25 lead at the end of the first half through consecutive three-pointers.

Qatar never gave up although they had a disaster on the offensive end. They closed it as near as 66-64 with 1:29 minutes left in the fourth quarter by Khalid Abdi's three-pointer.

Center Wang Zhizhi, who had 18 points, buried a crucial three-pointer and made a block for China in the following one minute to cheer up the the packed Huangpu Stadium.

China made two out of four three-throws down the stretch when Qatar missed a series of attempts in the last half minutes.

Qatar's Targuy Ngombo had 24 points and Yaseen Musa had 21.

The Philippines defeated Qatar and Chinese Taipei in the preliminary round as a qualifier. On Wednesday, they played one of their best matches again as they kept the pressure on the Koreans throughout the game.

They even led in the first quarter, by 15-13, and made it a close game for most of the time. But South Korea used a modest game to claim a semifinal berth.

(Xinhua News Agency November 25, 2010)