FIBA U18 Women's Basketball Asian Cup Finals, with 2.2-meter-tall female Yao Ming Zhang Ziyu in the Chinese vs. defending champion Australia, Zhang Ziyu scored a game-high 42 points plus 14 rebounds, but China could not escape defeat, the overall battle of the Australian team worked, plus suppressed Zhang Ziyu with speed, and finally won with a 17-point gap of 96:79 and successfully defended the title.
After the game, Ziyu sat on the sidelines and cried bitterly, and then won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the tournament before regaining his joy.
Australia's three-tower formation, with both body and speed
Zhang Ziyu came on as a substitute in China's first group stage against Indonesia, and the video of her height completely destroying her opponent shocked the Internet, and she continued to perform well in the group stage against New Zealand and Japan, and the semifinals against South Korea, but this time she faced the Australian team, and finally met the test.
There are also many big men in the Australian team, and there are three starters who are about 1.9 meters tall. This three-tower formation with both stature and speed is quite effective, the score of the two sides in the early stage of the game is tight, Australia has a slight upper hand all the way, leading 22:19 in the first quarter, and Zhang Ziyu does not play a big role, the Australian players are blocking in front of her, Ziyu's hand style is not smooth, and China once fell behind by as many as 14 points in the second quarter.
Zhang Ziyu broke out at the end of the second quarter, and the Chinese women's basketball team once surpassed by 5 points
Zhang Ziyu is 30 cm taller than the opponent closest to the height, but the footsteps are bulky, the running speed is obviously not as fast as all teammates and opponents, the biggest advantage is to win a lot of fouls, to the end of the second quarter, several Australian players who are responsible for defending her have committed three fouls, Zhang Ziyu can finally play the power of the bottom of the basket, start to score one after another, and easily grab the offensive rebound and shoot again, with 6 minutes left in the third quarter, China chased a 53:53 tie, and then led the team to 61:56 over 5 points.
The event was held in Shenzhen, and the fans were of course very excited to see the Chinese team overtake. The Australian team was once disrupted and made frequent mistakes, the coach called a timeout in time and increased the speed of dribbling and passing again, and once again targeted Zhang Ziyu, which caused her shooting rate to be greatly reduced, and she was always one step ahead of her to intercept the rebound, and Australia had regained a 5-point advantage by the end of the third quarter.
Australia is effective for deployment, and the end is the audience
In the fourth quarter, Zhang Ziyu's physical fitness declined significantly, and his contribution at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends was limited, and the Chinese team with Zhang Ziyu as the center of gravity could not catch up. Seeing that the general trend has gone, Zhang Ziyu can only be an audience on the bench at the end, and the Chinese team struggled with Australia with speed, but the result is more and more lost, and finally lost with a 17-point distance of 79:96.
Zhang Ziyu is still not bad in statistics, playing 26 minutes and 38 seconds on the court, scoring a game-high 42 points, but the shooting rate is limited to 50%, and only 18 goals are hit in 36 starts, which is far lower than in previous games. Of her 14 rebounds in the game, as many as 10 were offensive rebounds that were snatched back after a missed shot, but in the middle of the third quarter, the Australian team stepped up their interference and grabbed rebounds, and no rebounds were scored. Compared with the four players of the Australian team who scored in double digits, the Chinese team is only Zhang Ziyu, so even if she scores 42 points, it is not enough to lead the victory.
After the game, he hid his face and cried bitterly, and was awarded the MVP to regain his joy
The Chinese team's offensive tactics are not only relatively monotonous, but Zhang Ziyu is also incompatible with his teammates, except for standing under the basket when he throws the ball to her to start, teammates basically will not pass the ball to her at other times, and the help given to her when attacking is also limited, as if she is left to fend for herself under the basket, the Australian team sees this point After intercepting Zhang Ziyu's supply at the end of the period, the Chinese team is powerless to fight back.
Watching the Australian team celebrate happily, Zhang Ziyu, who was sitting on the sidelines, couldn't help crying, and even hid his face with a white towel around his neck and cried bitterly. It wasn't until the award ceremony that Zhang Ziyu was awarded the MVP of the event that she regained her joy.
Zhang Ziyu showed the style of a giant in this tournament, and the height advantage made opponents confused, and the Australian team showed the world how to deal with her. As Zhang Ziyu has repeatedly emphasized in an interview earlier that "I have to improve", "I can easily go to the basket, but basketball is definitely more than that, there is still a lot of things I need to learn", the Australian team has given her this valuable lesson, which may become an important nutrient for her future basketball growth.
At the age of 14, it has become a national hot topic
Zhang Ziyu used her height advantage to crush her opponent in this year's U18 Asian Cup, becoming a global hot topic, she had become the focus of the country as early as 3 years ago because of her participation in the Chinese U15 Women's Basketball League, when she was only 14 years old, she was more than two meters tall, and the height gap with the opponent was even greater, and it was also at that time that she was named the female version of Yao Ming.
Her parents used to be basketball players, her father is 2.13 meters tall, and her mother is former Chinese team center Yu Ying, who is also 1.98 meters tall. Ziyu, who was born in Shandong, said that her mother encouraged her to play basketball, and she had tried to practice high jump and long jump in the past. She was 1.6 meters tall in the first grade of primary school and 2.11 meters tall in the sixth grade.
And it has been reported that Zhang Ziyu's height has reached 2.26 meters, or even 2.28 meters, which is very close to Yao Ming's 2.29-meter-tall deity. In any case, as long as Zhang Ziyu can avoid serious injuries and continue to play basketball, her playing career height advantage alone is destined to become a topic.