On June 29, Beijing time, the semifinals of the U18 Women's Basketball Asian Cup officially started, the Chinese women's basketball team ushered in the battle with the strong rival South Korean women's basketball team, the Chinese women's basketball team won all three games in the group stage, according to the rules, the Chinese women's basketball team has been qualified to participate in the 2025 U19 Women's Basketball World Cup, during the group stage, the 2.23-meter-tall center player Zhang Ziyu relied on exaggerated performance to gain huge attention from the outside world, and won the reputation of "women's version of Yao Ming", in the game against the Japanese women's basketball team, Zhang Ziyu once played a single-game 44-point performance, Therefore, her performance against South Korea is also the focus of attention.
Zhang Ziyu showed absolute dominance at the beginning, scoring 6 points in a row, and the opponent's defense was completely unable to limit Zhang Ziyu, but South Korea relied on outside three-point shooting and quick counterattacks to bite the score, and only trailed by 3 points in the first quarter 21-24.
In the second quarter, the women's basketball team made a targeted offensive and defensive strategy against South Korea, resulting in a complete dumb fire on the offensive end of the Korean women's basketball team, scoring only 3 points in a single quarter, and the Chinese women's basketball team established a huge lead of 21 points at 45-24 at halftime.
South Korea only scored 11 points in the third quarter, and the Chinese women's basketball team firmly controlled the situation, and finally the Chinese women's basketball team defeated South Korea 79-61 and successfully advanced to the finals, which will compete with the Australian women's basketball team for the championship.
In this crucial knockout round, the young Zhang Ziyu once again proved himself strongly, extending his terrifying dominance during the group stage to the semi-finals.
Due to the early establishment of a big lead, Zhang Ziyu only played 21 minutes in the whole game, 17 of 25 shots, 0 of 1 free throws, and easily hit 34 points, 16 rebounds, 5 assists and 1 steal, with a plus/minus of +28.
In the face of a much shorter South Korean player, Zhang Ziyu can be said to be what he wants on the inside, and what is more valuable is that as a giant inside, Zhang Ziyu has a soft hand and an excellent sense of the ball, even if the pass delivered by the outside line is not so comfortable, Zhang Ziyu can also get the ball through light picks and other means.
Her excellent ball sense allows her to have a certain ability to handle the ball, and can complete the ball in an effective position through simple transmission of the ball with the outside, as long as she appears in the penalty area, even if she can't score, she can also grab frontcourt rebounds and create a lot of secondary offensive opportunities.
Her excellent finger and wrist strength allowed her to even bend down in the crowd to grab the ball and complete the second attack, which is rare for an interior line of Zhang Ziyu's size.
Her pick-and-roll awareness and quality are even better, and she can fully create open space for her teammates, even if her teammates miss, she has absolute frontcourt rebounding dominance on the inside.
This game is not the first time Zhang Ziyu has shown absolute dominance, and Zhang Ziyu's performance has been very terrifying since the U18 Women's Basketball Asian Cup.
In the first game against Indonesia, due to the team's 59-point victory, Zhang Ziyu did not exert his strength and only got 19 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists.
In the second game, facing New Zealand, which emphasizes physical confrontation, Zhang Ziyu led the team to defeat the opponent 90-68 with 36 points and 13 boards.
In the third game against the strong opponent Japan, Zhang Ziyu made 20 of 22 shots and scored 44 points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists, helping the team beat the Japanese team 97-81.
The rest of the player statistics are as follows: Zheng Xinru 6 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists, Wang Jiayi 2 points and 3 assists, Xu Fengwei 2 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists, Wang Jiaxin 3 points and 1 assist, Li Yuwei 4 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists, Zhang Ziyue 4 points and 5 boards, Xu Peilin 12 points, 11 rebounds and 3 assists, Chen Jing 8 points and 6 boards, Sun Kaiwen 2 points, Zhang Yifan 2 points and 3 rebounds and Hu Yifan 2 rebounds and 3 assists.