Li Meng (L) of China competes during the women's basketball quarterfinal against Chinese Taipei at the Hangzhou Asian Games on Oct. 2, 2023. (Xinhua/Pan Yulong)
China eased past Chinese Taipei to enter the women's basketball semifinal, facing off DPR Korea back-to-back for Asiad final place on Tuesday.
HANGZHOU, Oct. 2 (Xinhua) -- China's "big three" Li Meng, Han Xu and Li Yueru combined for 80 points to help their team trounce Chinese Taipei 104-60 in the Asiad women's basketball quarterfinals here on Monday.
Unlike last Sunday's preliminary last-round game versus India, China got into the game mode slowly, trailing two points at the end of the first quarter. Led by center Li Yueru's consecutive 13 points, defending champion China soon came back in the second quarter and seized the victory.
China's head coach Zheng Wei said the first quarter was not the FIBA World Cup runner-up's "real strength".
"Our players weren't in their top form in the first quarter," Zheng said, adding "but we soon turned the situation around in the second quarter."
"This game can be very helpful to us for the following rounds since we won all group games easily, and the players might have an overrelaxed mindset," Zheng noted. "I talked really hard to them on the bench during the interval, and it turned out well."
Li Yueru (1st, R) of China competes during the game. (Xinhua/Pan Yulong)
Li Yueru had a super "double-double" of 29 points and 12 rebounds, while Li Meng and Han Xu added 26 and 25 points respectively.
On Chinese Taipei's side, Huang Ling-Chuan scored a team-high 13 points, and Chen Wei-An and Chen Yen-yu added 11 apiece.
In other women's quarterfinals, DPR Korea thrashed India 96-57, South Korea beat the Philippines 93-71 and Japan cruised past Indonesia 89-47.
On Tuesday, China will play a back-to-back semifinal with DPR Korea, and Japan is set to compete with South Korea.
Next facing off against DPR Korea, who didn't register at the FIBA Asian Cup, Zheng admitted that there wasn't much information available on their opponent, but the Chinese coaching crew were watching the mysterious side's games at the Asian Games.
Zheng Wei (R), head coach of China, communicates with Li Yueru during the game. (Xinhua/Pan Yulong)
Expected to play four games in five days, fatigue was another potential concern for Team China, while Zheng didn't regard it as a problem. "We have a pretty decent bench depth, which allows each of my players only need to play 20 minutes in a game. And competing in condensed schedule is the basic requirement for every team."
In men's part, Saudi Arabia defeated Hong Kong, China 95-72 to make last eight, while Chinese Taipei beat Kazakhstan 83-62 to also advance. The Philippines routed Qatar 80-41 and South Korea defeated Bahrain 88-73.
On the men's bracket, the quarterfinals will see Jordan vs Saudi Arabia, Japan vs Chinese Taipei, Iran vs the Philippines and China vs South Korea. ■
