On the evening of June 30, the U18 Women's Basketball Asian Cup ushered in the final round of the showdown, the Chinese team and the Australian team both advanced to the finals with a winning record, staged a strong dialogue, and finally the Chinese team lost 79-96 and won the runner-up.
Looking back at the game, the Australian team was the only team to grab the jump ball and score quickly in the opening game, while at the same time showing a tough performance on the inside, forming a fierce confrontation with Zhang Ziyu, greatly limiting the rebounding of the Chinese team and causing a lot of interference to the offense.
The two teams played back and forth in the first quarter, and the situation on the court was stalemate, with China trailing by three points. The game entered the second quarter, and the distinctive style of the Australian team could be felt even more, with a strong body and a tough style, both inside and outside, so it brought a certain amount of pressure to the Chinese team at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, especially for the connection between the outside players and Zhang Ziyu, which increased the difficulty, so the score difference gradually expanded to double digits. At the end of the second quarter, Zhang Ziyu began to gradually adjust his state, leading the team to play a wave of offensive climaxes, and at the end of the first half, the Chinese team fell behind 42-49.
Yibian fought again, the Australian team still maintained a fierce offensive momentum, but the Chinese team began to find a way to crack, nearly halfway through the third quarter, 53-53 equalized the score, it was still Zhang Ziyu who stood up and played high under the basket to help the team achieve the first overtake. In the fourth quarter, the two teams played inextricably, and the game entered the countdown, testing who had the patience to be better in defense and have a higher offensive success rate, but with the physical exertion, the Chinese team was too impatient in the handling of some balls, on the other hand, the Australian team remained calm and calmly widened the point difference again, and the Chinese team missed the opportunity and lost 79-96.
After losing to the Australian team, Zhang Ziyu, who scored 42 points, hid his face and cried on the bench after the game.
In terms of statistics, Zhang Ziyu had 42 points, 14 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and 1 block; Xu Fengwei 9 points, 2 rebounds, 7 assists and 2 steals; Wang Jiaxin 8 points, 6 assists and 2 steals; Li Yuwei had 6 points and 1 rebound.
China's Zhang Ziyu and Xu Peilin were selected as the best team of this year's U18 Asian Cup, and Zhang Ziyu was awarded the Most Valuable Player for his outstanding performance.
In the group stage of this year's U18 Women's Basketball Asian Cup, the Chinese U18 women's basketball team showed its unstoppable strength, defeating Indonesia 109-50, New Zealand 90-68, and Japan 97-81, and directly advanced to the semifinals with three consecutive wins. At the same time, according to the competition system, the top four teams in this tournament will qualify for the U19 Women's Basketball World Cup to be held in the Czech Republic next year, and the Chinese U18 women's basketball team has locked the ticket early with its excellent performance. Later, in the semifinals with the South Korean team on the 29th, the Chinese U18 women's basketball team maintained its hot state, defeated the opponent 79-61, and successfully met the Australian team in the final.
If you pay attention to the U18 Women's Basketball Asian Cup Chinese team, you can find center Zhang Ziyu on the court at a glance, and at 2.24 meters, she can be described as a dominant performance on the inside most of the time. Especially in the third game of the group stage against Japan, she scored 44 points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists with amazing personal data, setting a new single-game scoring record for the FIBA U18 Women's Basketball Asian Cup.
The pivotal battle also set a new high in viewership, garnering 3.6 million views on FIBA's official overseas channels and Chinese social media platforms. Moreover, it is not only domestic fans who are discussing Zhang Ziyu's "dimensionality reduction strike", but also the Internet is also highly discussed about China's player known as the "female version of Yao Ming", and Zhang Ziyu is also considered to be a potential new star in the U18 Women's Basketball Asian Cup.
Zhang Ziyu, who was born in 2007, has just turned 17 this year, and although she has received such a high level of attention when she first appeared on the international stage, the most important thing for her at the moment is to be down-to-earth, "I will play every game well and do what I have to do." For the excellent individual performance, Zhang Ziyu believes that it should be attributed to the tacit understanding with his teammates, "Everyone's tacit understanding is accumulated little by little through every training session, and I hope to get better results with my teammates in next year's competition." ”
Head coach Wang Guizhi believes that Zhang Ziyu's shine in the U18 Asian Cup is not accidental, "She has followed the whole team in every class every day, and has been training from Qinhuangdao for three months, and has been training as a whole, individually, and locally, so today's performance is also very normal, not a sudden performance, and has been very stable." ”
It is worth mentioning that the Chinese U18 women's basketball team has three players from the Zhejiang women's basketball team. They are No. 5 Wang Jiayi, No. 10 Li Yuwang, and No. 15 Chen Jing.
Li Yuwei performed well in this U18 Asian Cup tour, and in the game against Japan, she got 15 points, 10 rebounds and 3 assists. As a strong and important force in the front line, Li Yuwei creates opportunities for the team, and also shares the scoring pressure.
No. 10 Li Yuwei
The U18 Women's Basketball Asian Cup has allowed us to see the progress of China's young team, but it has also exposed some problems, the team wants to go far in the future, and cannot rely too much on one player, and all members can only be long-term. In addition, a player with excellent physical talent like Zhang Ziyu is still in the growth stage and needs time to adapt to the rhythm of high-intensity games.
The U18 Women's Basketball Asian Cup has come to an end, and there is still the U19 World Cup waiting for these girls next year, which also means that they will face greater challenges, and we look forward to them showing a better face in the future.
Reporter: Du Xinyu Photo source FIBA