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China crowns Women's Basketball Championship
China claimed its fourth straight title at the Asian under-18 women's basketball championship on Thursday after holding off a strong challenge from South Korea to win 102-79 in the final. Japan, who lost 71-54 to Chinese Taipei in their first meeting at the group stage, took sweet revenge on Chinese Taipei with a 57-52 victory for the third place. Bian Lan led six Chinese players in double-digit points with 22,scoring 17 in the first half. Zhang Wei had 19, Wang Qing 18 and Hu Nan 13. Center Liu Dan hit a double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds. Kim Jung-eun was the top scorer for South Korea with 22 points.Kim Soo-yeon chipped in 21 and Kim Bo-mi added 17. The Chinese team, who piped South Korea 96-80 in the group stage, looked unstoppable as they raced to a 15-6 lead just more than three minutes into Thursday's match. But the tenacious South Koreans leveled at 18-18 thanks to a 12-3 run led by Kim Soo-yeon and Kim Bo-mi with 3:32 left to go in the opening quarter. After the score was tied at 24-24 with just 46 seconds remaining,Hu Nan and Liu Dan each fired in two free throws to put China in front again at 28-24. South Korea used a 5-0 run in the opening stage of the second period to overtake China 29-28. Wang then hit a 2-pointer to helpChina regain the lead at 30-29. Bian scored eight points as the host team extended its advantage to eight points at 47-39 at halftime and never looked dangerous thereafter. The Chinese went 6-for-14 from 3-point range, while their SouthKorean counterparts shot only 3-for-17. China out-rebounded SouthKorea 35-26. Despite winning the final as expected, Chinese head coach Sun Fengwu lavished praises to the South Koreans. "South Korea are a very good team. They are even better than Chinese players in terms of skills and techniques," said Sun, a former member of the Chinese national men's basketball team. "We won because we have a clear-cut advantage in height," he added. The Chinese team had an average height of 1.84m, while their South Korean counterparts had only 1.78m. South Korea's head coach No Wan-ki expressed his dissatisfaction with the referees, saying a few ruling were "wrong". Kim Jung-eun was judged technical fouls twice in the last quarter and the Chinese team was therefore awarded four consecutive free throws. No Wan-ki, in explicit protest, brought on all substitutes immediately. "Since we trailed so much at the moment, it's useless of fielding the starting line-up," he explained. "I wish we could meet China again in next year's world championship," he added. Top two finishers of the biennial regional event, which kicked off last Friday, qualify for next year's world championship in Tunisia. In the playoff for the third place, trailing 30-28 at halftime,the Japanese launched a 10-2 run to overtake Chinese Taipei at 38-32 with 6:22 to go in the third quarter. Chinese Taipei, the runner-up of the last Asian U-18 Women's Championship, returned with a 10-3 run to go ahead 42-41 with 2:30remaining. But Asuka Hayashida then hit a 3-pointer to put the Japanese in front again and for good. Japanese head coach Junichi Hoshizawa paid tributes to his players. "My team was getting better and better at the tournament. They tried their utmost in the match and they deserved the win," said Hoshizawa, who took the coaching job in 1992. When asked whether he was satisfied with the 3rd place, Hoshizawa relied "Yes." "We lost two key players through injuries before we came here. Moreover, we had a very short training time for this tournament. In view of these factors, I should be satisfied with the result," he said. Chinese Taipei, who led 11-8 and 30-28 respectively by the end of the first and second quarters, shot 19-for-59 from the field, while Japan was 19-for-47. Chinese Taipei committed 26 turnovers against Japan's 15. Chie Kebaya led Japan with 14 points. Saori Fujiyoshi, Asami Yoshida and Mariko Takada added eight points apiece. Chinese Taipei's Liu Yi-chun scored a game-high 21 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, but it was not enough to prevent her team from missing out on the podium.
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