Defending champs U.S. hand China 1st defeat at Women's Basketball World Cup (updated 2)-Xinhua

Defending champs U.S. hand China 1st defeat at Women's Basketball World Cup (updated 2)

Source: Xinhua

Editor: huaxia

2022-09-24 21:27:15

SYDNEY, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- The United States inflicted the first loss on China 77-63 at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup Group A actions here on Saturday.

Seven Chinese players hit the scoreboard, as Li Meng led three Chinese players in double figures with 21 points and two rebounds. Wang Siyu had 17 points, four rebounds and six assists, while Li Yueru and Han Xu scored six rebounds apiece.

A'ja Wilson had 20 points and eight rebounds for the U.S. while Chelsea Gray scored 12 points and six rebounds.

The clash was considered one of the most absorbing games in the group phase. China was fresh from two overwhelming wins over South Korea and Bosnia and Herzegovina as they faced the three-time defending champions whose campaign was boosted with the return of their WNBA championship trio Kelsey Plum, Gray and Wilson ahead of the game.

"Compared to the previous two, today's game was of another level in terms of confrontation and intensity. We hope the players have learned a lot from this game," said China head coach Zheng Wei.

"We didn't play quite well in the opening minutes and the last three minutes of the second quarter, but they did really well in the rest of the match and I'm very proud of them."

The United States started aggressively and raced out to an 11-0 lead within the opening two minutes with consecutive 3-pointers, forcing China into a time-out.

The Chinese players showed their resistance and tied the game at 13-13 after Wang's two free throws with three minutes remaining. The United States went ahead 18-13 as the first quarter expired.

While China were given a much harder test by the reigning champions in the second quarter, the Chinese players showed guts and made efforts to get everyone involved in the game. However, fueled by an array of powerful stars led by Wilson, the United States arguably took total control of the rest of the quarter.

After leading 31-25 midway through the second quarter, the United States pulled away with a 13-0 surge from there to establish a 44-25 halftime advantage. The world No. 1 side shot 7 of 12 from the 3-point range in the first half.

A gritty Chinese team put on another comeback effort back from the locker room, as Han and Wang combined for straight points to cap the third quarter 56-47.

The United States kicked off the final period with a 7-0 run. China once again whittled down the gap to a single digit after Han's layup with two minutes to play, but the reigning world champions held their nerves afterwards to come through.

"To say that we did anything necessarily that much better because I thought China was well prepared as we thought they would be. They were hard to play against on the offensive end," said Cheryl Reeve, head coach of the U.S. team.

Although the deficit was not wide, Zheng said that China still has far more to catch up, such as physical confrontation, transition speed, rebounding and time control.

China will take on Puerto Rico on Monday, while the United States will face South Korea.

The top four teams from each of the two groups will progress to the quarter-finals.