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With 78-72 loss to Japan in basketball World Cup Qualifier, Korean men's path to second round gets tougher

Published: 02 Mar. 2026, 12:57 Updated: 02 Mar. 2026, 17:24

Korea's small forward Lee Hyun-jung dribbles during a 2027 FIBA World Cup qualifier against Japan in Okinawa on March 1. [NEWS1]

The Korean men's basketball team lost 78-72 to Japan in the 2027 FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers on Sunday, suffering a second straight defeat in Group B and setting a difficult path to the second round of the qualifying stage.

Sunday's loss was new head coach Nicolais Mazurs's second game in charge. His first ended with a 77-65 loss against Chinese Taipei on Thursday.

Korea led Japan 55-52 through the third quarter but lost the lead in the fourth. Lee Hyun-jung registered 28 points and 11 rebounds, including five 3-pointers, but that wasn't enough to offset Japan's offense.

Josh Hawkinson scored 24 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Japan, with Yuta Watanabe adding 15 points and seven rebounds.

Korea now sit in second in Group B with two wins and two losses. The team must win the next two games in order to reach the second round of qualifiers. One loss will force the squad to rely on results from elsewhere in the group, where top three teams advance to the next round alongside the top three countries from each of the other three groups.

In the second round of the tournament, 12 teams will compete in two groups. The top three teams from each six-team group along with the best fourth-place team will qualify for the 2027 FIBA World Cup in Qatar.

Japan sits atop in Group B with Korea in second, followed by China and Chinese Taipei as of Monday. Korea will play their penultimate qualifier in the group against Chinese Taipei on July 3 and their final Group B game will be against Japan on July 6.

Korea has played qualifiers in Group B without schedule changes so far, but games in Group C and D have been rescheduled until late June due to the airstrikes on Iran on Saturday by Israel and the United States.

“In light of the developments today in the region, FIBA has decided to postpone all games in groups C and D of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers that were scheduled for Monday, March 2,” FIBA said in a statement on Sunday.

The impacted contests are the Iraq-Jordan, Iran-Syria and Lebanon-India games, which were due to be held in Zouk Mikael, Lebanon, as well as the Qatar-Saudi Arabia game, which was to take place in Doha, Qatar.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY PIH JU-YOUNG [[email protected]]