Asian Champions League: Japan won the championship 94-93, Mongolia was third, Zhejiang was eighth, South Korea was the bottom

Early this morning, the 2025 Men's Basketball Team AFC Champions League held the final competition. The Utsunomiya Royals from Japan faced the defending champion, and the Alriyadh team from Lebanon can be regarded as a showdown between East and East Asia, and East Asia finally got the last laugh.

The two teams have different promotion paths. Alriyadh won all the wins to advance to the finals, including 103-76 Changyuan LG Falcon, 99-82 Taoyuan Pioneer Ape, 102-66 Zhejiang Guangsha, and 100-78 Dubai Youth Nationals. Utsunomiya Emperor suppressed first and then rose, losing to Manila Electric 86-97 in the first game, narrowly defeated Dubai Youth Nationals 105-99 in the second round, and then narrowly eliminated Tabiat 94-93 after two overtime matches, and defeated the Ulaanbaatar Mustangs 93-71 in the last round.

originally thought there was no suspense in this game, but the game process was full of twists and turns, and the ending was a bit uneven. In the first quarter, Riyadh quickly established an advantage of about 6 points, with the largest difference of 13 points. However, in the last two minutes, the hit rate of Utsunomiya Emperor soared, recovering 10 points, Japan 26-29 Lebanon in a single quarter; in the second quarter, Utsunomiya Emperor continued his good form, overtook the score at the beginning, and withstood the pressure in the middle and late period, Japan 24-17 Lebanon in a single quarter, and the total score was 50-46 Lebanon.

In the third quarter, Japan continued to stabilize its advantage, and the score difference fluctuated between 3-8 points. Riyadh only had the momentum to chase points in the later period of this quarter. Japan 21-24 Lebanon in a single quarter, and the total score was 71-70 Lebanon. In the last quarter, Japan made three-pointers in a row, and Lebanon continued to tie the score to 82. After the two teams alternately led to 93-91, Japan relied on three-pointers to win the game.

After the game, Utsunomiya Emperor (Japan) successfully reached the top of Asia 94-93 and also qualified for this year's Club World Cup. In the bronze medal battle, Mongolia's Ulaanbaatar Broncos defeated Dubai Youth Nationals 84-79 and won third place.

At this point, this AFC Champions League has officially ended, with rankings as follows: 1. Japan's Utsunomiya King; 2. Lebanon's Alriyadh; 3. Mongolia's Ulaanbaatar Mustang; 4. Dubai youth nationals in the UAE; 5. Iran's Tabiat; 6. Taoyuan Pilot Ape in Taipei, China; 7. Philippines' Manila Electric; 8. China's Zhejiang Guangsha; 9. South Korea's Changyuan LG Falcon Hunting.

This year's championship comes from East Asia, and last year it was West Asia. Alriyadh won all five games last year (118-75 Liaoning Bengang in China, 102-88 Dubai Youth National in the UAE, 108-88 Malaysia's Nenmi Nende, 121-89 Japan's Hiroshima Dragonfly, 122-96 UAE's Dubai Youth National in the UAE), won the final championship and won fourth place in last year's Club World Cup, failing to defend the title this year.

Last year and this year's AFC Champions League, Liaoning Bengang and Zhejiang Guangsha, both tacitly chose to send substitute players who have no chance to play in the league. The total score is 1 win or 5 losses, and they have not advanced to the semi-finals of Asia. It is a bit regrettable. There is no National Games mission next year. With the experience of these two sessions, I look forward to the league champions in the new season who can play in the third AFC Champions League and prove their strength in Asia.