Chinese Taipei produced one of the biggest upsets of the FIBA Asian women’s u-18 basketball championship (Division A), with an impressive 74-61 victory over World No. 4 and 16-time champion China in a Group-A contest, at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Wednesday. The last time it defeated China was in the Asia u-18 championship at home in 2002.
The other three matches went according to the script with higher-ranked teams posting wins. Japan thrashed Indonesia 117-35, Australia beat New Zealand 111-44 and Korea got the better of India 69-47.
There was no indication of Taipei’s level of play in the first quarter (10-25). Though it put up a relatively better show in the second (31-36), it was only in the third quarter that Taipei took the game away from the Asian powerhouse.
Showing excellent defensive capabilities and consistent shooting, Taipei scored 25 points in the third while China could manage just eight in the same period (56-44).
“It is a historic moment. I told the players to use the wide spaces,” said Mei-Li Chen, the head coach of Taipei.
India would be satisfied with the way it played, especially in the last two quarters where it showed the spunk and aggression that was missing in the match against Australia.
The results: Division-A: Group-A: Australia 111 (Sophie Borrows 14, Dallas Loughridge 12, Nyadiew Puoch 11, Isobel Borlase 16, Isla Juffemans 12) bt New Zealand 44 (Florence Dallow 10); Korea 69 (Sol Kim 15, Seoyeon Ko 14, Seongjin Park 10) bt India 47 (Yashneet Kaur 13).
Group-B: Japan 107 (Chinami Yokoyama 12, Saki Furuya 12, Msaki Sasaka 17, Mnami Takaki 11, Honoka Mbrioka 13, Mnami Yabu 11) bt Indonesia 35; Chinese Taipei 74 (Yu Lan Chang 18, Yu Wein Hsiao 15, Chin Hua Yu 13) bt China 61 (Duoling Hu 10, Wenxia Li 21, Qinyang Li 15).
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