On June 30, Beijing time, the U18 Women's Basketball Asian Cup final officially began. In this game, the Chinese women's basketball team faced the powerful Australian women's basketball team. The Chinese team, which has "Female Yao Ming" Zhang Ziyu, has high morale and aims to win the long-lost championship for the women's basketball team. However, after 4 quarters of fierce competition, the Chinese team lost to the Australian team 79-96 and unfortunately won the runner-up. Although Zhang Ziyu showed extraordinary individual ability on the field, in the face of the Australian team's tight defense and strong attack, the Chinese team was unable to achieve a comeback.
As soon as the game began, Zhang Ziyu felt unprecedented defensive pressure. In the first quarter, her offense encountered high-intensity defense and confrontation many times, and was even pushed to the ground by the opponent at one point. Still, Australia took the lead in the first half with a succession of air cuts and three-pointers. Entering the third quarter, Zhang Ziyu began to exert his strength, relying on the second attack and the inside attack to score consecutive points to help the Chinese team chase points and once complete the overtake. However, Australia's Shears (No. 4) led his team to the lead again with excellent individual ability and went into the final quarter with an advantage.
In the final quarter, the Chinese team faced a severe challenge. Zhang Ziyu once helped the Chinese team chase down to only 4 points on the court, but the continuous mistakes of captain Wang Jiaxin, coupled with indiscriminate shooting, directly brought the difference to 8 points again, which made the Chinese team's situation even worse. Zhang Ziyu had no choice but to take a break after receiving his fourth foul, and then failed to play again, and the Chinese team's efforts to chase the score ultimately failed, and the Chinese team lost the opportunity.
In the whole game, Zhang Ziyu did her best, she played 26 minutes in the whole game, shooting 18 of 36, 6 of 12 free throws, and slashing 42 points, 14 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 block. It is worth mentioning that no one in the team scored a double except for Zhang Ziyu. Australia's Shears was the best player of the game with 30 points, 14 rebounds and five assists on 11-of-13 shooting.
After the game, Zhang Ziyu sat on the bench and cried bitterly, which made people feel distressed. However, she has done her best, but the performance of her teammates and the scheduling of the head coach are too pitiful, burying the efforts of the whole team. Although the Chinese team failed to win the Asian Cup, Zhang Ziyu's outstanding performance and the tenacious fighting spirit of the whole team are still commendable. The experience of this competition is a valuable opportunity for the young U18 Chinese women's basketball players to learn and grow. We look forward to them continuing to show the style and strength of the Chinese women's basketball team in the international arena in the future."