After the first day being washed out due to heavy rain, the FIBA Asian U-18 women’s basketball championship (Division-A) got off a great start at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Tuesday.
Highly ranked teams, as expected, had it easy. Chinese Taipei gave a splendid display of its fighting abilities before going down to seventh-ranked Japan 77-90 in a Group-B match. Later, China, which has been ranked fourth in the world, showed why it’s the top-ranked side in Asia when it drubbed Indonesia 91-30 in another Group-B contest.
Trailing by 14 points at the start of the third quarter, Taipei played an outstanding quarter, its best in the match. Not only did it score frequently, but also did a solid job at the defence.
With less than three minutes remaining for the third quarter, Taipei reduced the margin to five points (60-65) after a two-pointer by En Hsin Li. Stunned, Japan started to take rear-guard action.
Ranked 7th in the world, Japan gradually raised its level with timely offensive & defensive rebounds before pressing the accelerator.
Yu Wen Hsiao was the pick of the lot for Taipei, basketing 39 points with the bulk of scoring (24) coming in the first two quarters. In the 37-odd minutes, she was on the field, Hsiao converted 16 of her 19 attempts and her free throw conversion was outstanding (7/9).
In the last match of the day at 6 p.m. today (Tuesday), host India (ranked 52) will take on Australia, ranked two.
Division A results:
Group B: Japan 90 (Yuziyu Yasogawa 23, Haruka Owaki16) bt Chinese Taipei 77 (Yu Lan Chang 10, Yu Wen Hsiao 39); China 91 (Duoling Hu 19, Jing Wang 13, Wenxia Li 16, Qingyang Li 14, Zhongqiu Dou 11) bt Indonesia 30.
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