The Chinese women's basketball team's dual core efforts are difficult to conceal three issues!, Reversal defeats South Korean women's basketball team and locks in the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup. South Korea | Women's Basketball Team | China Women's Basketball Team
After defeating South Korea 87-81 in extra time, the Chinese women's basketball team reversed their opponent's lead in the first three quarters on the afternoon of the 28th, achieving a three game winning streak in the 2023 Women's Basketball Asian Cup. They secured the semi-finals of the Asian Cup as the top team in their group and secured a spot in the women's basketball qualifying round for the Paris Olympics in February 2024. They also secured a spot in the 2026 Women's Basketball World Cup.
Throughout the game, the Chinese women's basketball team had a dual core effort, with Han Xu scoring 33 points and 11 rebounds, and Li Meng scoring 26 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists, becoming the key to the team's comeback. Although the team has not suffered a single defeat, it still exposes three problems that urgently need improvement on the road to the championship.
Illustrated: Han Xu and Li Meng.
One is still slow heating. From the first two matches of the group stage, it can be seen that the Chinese women's basketball team started a bit slowly, both opening the score in the third quarter. Today's game still didn't improve much on this point. In the first quarter, the South Korean women's basketball team hit a 7-0 shot, and at a critical moment, Jin Weina hit a three-point shot to stop bleeding. Then, until the third quarter, the girls in the South Korean women's basketball team were in a slump on the offensive end, filling the hole dug in the beginning; The second issue is that there are many mistakes. In this game, the Chinese women's basketball team made 12 mistakes at halftime and was once widened by the South Korean team's double-digit difference; The third issue is that the Chinese women's basketball team's outer line is too sluggish, which has been exposed in the past few games. Having good opportunities but not pitching may determine the direction of the game when facing stronger opponents in the future.
Of course, these three issues also have objective reasons - currently, the overall adjustment time of this Chinese women's basketball team is relatively short, and we have not played formal matches together for a long time. In fact, since the end of March this year, the Chinese women's basketball team has started training and went to Europe for a series of warm-up matches at the end of May. In the absence of absolute key players such as Yang Liwei, Han Xu, Li Meng, Li Yueru, and Huang Sijing in the World Cup, the Chinese women's basketball team has lost to strong teams such as Spain, France, Serbia, and Belgium. "This year's training is different from previous years because there are more players leaving the team. Seven out of the 12 players in last year's World Cup lineup were not in the team, adding many new players, so they were in a learning process in the early stage, but everyone is still improving," said Zheng Wei, the head coach of the Chinese women's basketball team.
Image: At last year's Women's Basketball World Cup, the Chinese team won the runner up. The photo shows the Chinese team after the award ceremony.
Compared to last year's World Cup lineup, the Chinese women's basketball team's 12 man roster for the Asian Cup has undergone four adjustments. Li Yueru, Huang Sijing, Wu Tongtong, and Dilana were all absent due to injuries, and their vacancies were replaced by Yang Shuyu, Luo Xinyu, Gao Song, and Tang Yu, respectively. Among them, Luo Xinyu performed well in his previous European practice sessions and was also selected for the FIBA's list of the five new stars in the Asian Cup. "Regardless of the team members, we must strive to achieve 100% even with only 1% hope," Zheng Wei said.
The good news is that the two main attacking players of the Chinese women's basketball team, Li Meng and Han Xu, are getting better and better. As the "first height" and "first intensity" of the Chinese women's basketball team, the two will also determine what kind of upper limit the team can reach in this tournament.
