When the last game, the Chinese team defeated the South Korean team with Zhang Ziyu's dominant performance, I believe that no one will think that the champion of this event, which team will be able to compete with China?
However, the reversal came too fast, there was no time to react, the Chinese team has lost the championship of this event, they lost to the Australian team today, and it is convincing to lose, there is an obvious gap between the strength of the Chinese team and the Australian team.
Zhang Ziyu also ushered in the strongest defense of this tournament, in the third quarter of the game, Zhang Ziyu's shooting rate even fell below 5 percent, Australia is obviously different from the previous opponent, this team has stronger physical confrontation, and the technology is more mature.
For the first time, the Chinese team entered the second half with a deficit of 42-49, and the Chinese team temporarily trailed Australia by 7 points.
The first attack of the Chinese team in the second half, handed the ball to Zhang Ziyu on the inside, the Australian players chose to defend behind them, this time Zhang Ziyu's position was very close to the basket, when she turned around, let herself face the frame, although the Australian players remained in front of them, but because the height gap was too large, they could not interfere with Zhang Ziyu's shooting, and could only watch Zhang Ziyu wipe the board and hit 2 points, helping the Chinese team narrow the score to only 5 points.
Unlike the previous opponent South Korea, Australia's players are more aggressive, and the South Korean team has not dared to break through to the inside line in the face of China, but Australia resolutely broke through the basket in this game, even if there is Zhang Ziyu's defense on the inside, they are not the slightest fear, on the contrary, they know that there are tigers in the mountains, and they prefer to go to the tiger mountain.
This also put great pressure on the Chinese team's defense, when Australia has no three-point opportunities, they will choose to shoot decisively, and then desperately rush to attack the rebound, in this game, they far surpassed China through the second score, and the number of rebounds is also far ahead.
For example, in Australia's offense, their interior player No. 10 missed the shot, but No. 9, who served the baseline ball, rushed to the basket, grabbed the offensive rebound and hit the basket, which further expanded Australia's advantage.
Compared with the Australian lineup, the Chinese team except for Zhang Ziyu has an advantage in the confrontation ability, the rest of the players are at an obvious disadvantage in the face of the Australian team, these little girls of the Chinese team, the body is not fully developed, and the Australian players who are white have already developed into adults, so when defending them, the players of the Chinese team obviously can't keep up, and they are easily broken through.
Fortunately, there is also Zhang Ziyu, when the third quarter was 7 minutes and 45 seconds, Zhang Ziyu stuck in the position on the inside, received a pass from her teammates, she first turned to the right, let herself face the basket, and then took a big step forward and came to the basket, although Australia's defenders are also very strong, but Zhang Ziyu, who has reached the basket position, can no longer defend, she used her left hand to complete a wipe shot, and once again helped the Chinese team narrow the score gap to only 4 points.
When there were 4 minutes and 51 seconds left in the third quarter, Zhang Ziyu received a pass from his teammates on the inside, Australia only had one player on defense, Zhang Ziyu turned to the left this time and came to the basket, and although the Australian players raised their hands high, they couldn't reach it at all, so they could only watch Zhang Ziyu once again wipe the board on the right side of the basket and score two points, this time the score successfully helped the Chinese team overtake the score to 55-53, and before that, the Chinese team had a maximum of 14 points behind Australia, It was completely up to Zhang Ziyu to chase the score back.
However, this also left a hidden danger for the Chinese team, and the rest of the teammates couldn't help too much at all, relying entirely on Zhang Ziyu to score alone, and Zhang Ziyu's physical fitness at this time had problems, and it was impossible to stay on the field all the time.
Sure enough, with 1 minute and 30 seconds left in this quarter, Zhang Ziyu was replaced by the coach and rested, and the two teams were tied at this time, with a score of 63:63.
And Australia immediately seized the time for Zhang Ziyu to go down to rest, and their No. 4 player was not much inferior to Zhang Ziyu in this game, and even better in terms of statistics.
She held the ball at the top of the arc, used the blocking and dismantling of her teammates, named the No. 7 player of the Chinese team, and then, using the advantage of physical confrontation, broke through to the basket, and while scoring the ball, she also caused a foul on the Chinese No. 7 player, and successfully played 2+1 to help Australia overtake the score by 3 points.
Australia's group of players is obviously No. 1 older than the Chinese team players in terms of size, especially the No. 4 player, not only has outstanding appearance, figure, and ball skills are also much higher than those around him, and in terms of strength, he is not much inferior to Zhang Ziyu of the Chinese team.
The charm of basketball lies in this, even if you don't have a unique height advantage, you can rely on super high skills to make yourself better than others, and Australia's player seems to be the nemesis that Zhang Ziyu met in this event.
Zhang Ziyu scored 42 points and 14 rebounds in this game, and the Australian No. 4 player on the opposite side also scored 28 points, shooting 11 of 13 shots and 14 rebounds, and the performance was not much inferior to Zhang Ziyu, but her teammates obviously gave her much more support than Zhang Ziyu.
When the game reached the fourth quarter, the problem of physical exhaustion of the Chinese team began to appear, and the problem of young people's inexperience was also revealed.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Chinese team was only 5 points behind the opponent at 65:70, and there was still the possibility of reversing the game, especially Zhang Ziyu scored a wonderful goal in the next round.
At that time, the fourth quarter was 9 minutes and 23 seconds, Zhang Ziyu got the ball near the free throw line, which was a little far from the basket, and did not reach her attack range, Australia's No. 14 took close defense behind him, Zhang Ziyu held the ball high, observed the running position of his teammates, and found that Australia did not choose to pinch the ball, but blocked her pass, so he decisively chose to attack personally.
She dribbled twice with her back, squeezed to the basket with the advantage of confrontation, then put the ball together with both hands, and then took a big step to the bottom of the basket, which directly broke down Australia's defense, came to the basket, and once again wiped the board to score 2 points, helping the Chinese team continue to narrow the gap to only 3 points.
Seeing that the momentum is about to rise, the problem of the Chinese team's lack of experience has appeared, after successfully defending against an attack by Australia, Zhang Ziyu once again received a pass from his teammates on the inside, and when everyone thought that he would easily score 2 points, there was an unexpected scene.
In this round, Australia's No. 14 player performed extremely tenacious, although she was at an absolute disadvantage in height, but she did not fall behind in strength, Zhang Ziyu wanted to turn around and come to the basket to wipe the board again, Australia's No. 14 player, always kept in front of her, and used his body to stick tightly, not allowing Zhang Ziyu to have an easy chance to shoot, giving her great oppression.
In the end, seeing that the 24-second offensive time was approaching, Zhang Ziyu could only helplessly choose to force a shot, after the ball was thrown, he didn't even touch the basket, and the rebound was also snatched away by the Australian player, and the Chinese team lost the opportunity to continue to narrow the score.
This round almost became a turning point in the game, indicating that Zhang Ziyu's physical fitness at this time had a huge problem.
After defending this round, Australia quickly launched a counterattack, and their No. 14 player, taking advantage of Zhang Ziyu's slow disadvantage, quickly counterattacked to the basket, received a pass from his teammates, and easily scored two points.
The Chinese team had to call a timeout, after the timeout came back, the Chinese team still chose to hand the ball to Zhang Ziyu under the basket, after a short break, Zhang Ziyu's physical fitness recovered, she under the basket against the Australian three players, using the height advantage still sent the ball to the basket, helping the score continue to narrow to only 3 points.
When it was Australia's turn to attack, they quickly brought the ball to the frontcourt, Australia's No. 4 player dribbled at the top of the arc to direct his teammates to run, and the No. 10 player came out to receive the ball, facing the defense of the No. 2 player of the Chinese team, forcibly broke through to the basket, and faced Zhang Ziyu's tough choice to go to the basket, which caused Zhang Ziyu to foul while scoring.
In the following period, Australia always maintained a lead of at least four points, which was extremely unfavorable for the Chinese team, because as the playing time increased, Zhang Ziyu's fitness had reached a critical point, and she had begun to hold her hands to her knees from time to time to rest.
As expected, when the game reached the last 4 minutes and 20 seconds, Zhang Ziyu stuck in the position on the inside, and received a pass from his teammates, and Australia did not take a pinch, just let their No. 12 player behind him to confront, Zhang Ziyu turned to the left and came to the basket, at this time, the Australian players have given up defense, but what is unexpected is that in the face of the empty basket that is close at hand, Zhang Ziyu actually because of the excessive force of wiping the board, the basketball finally bounced out, and the rebound was also grabbed by the No. 12 player, It also caused a foul by Zhang Ziyu, who was anti-robbery.
Subsequently, Zhang Ziyu was substituted, the Chinese team surrendered early, and Australia took advantage of the situation to play a wave of counterattacks to further expand the score advantage.
At the end of the game, Australia defeated China by 17 points 96-79 and won the U18 championship of the Asian Cup.
In summary, the reason why the Chinese team lost to Australia is because in addition to Zhang Ziyu, there is a huge gap in body and technology between the rest of the players and the Australian players, these Australian players already have the size of adults, while the players of the Chinese team are still immature, and the feeling on the field is like an adult beating a child, if it is not for Zhang Ziyu alone with a huge advantage, the Chinese team would not have lost to Australia by only 17 points.