SPORTS> Team China
Women hoopsters upset Japan to reach semis
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-12-08 17:07
DOHA - Defending champion China beat Japan 75- 60 here on Friday to make the semi-finals of the Doha Asian Games women's basketball tournament.

The Chinese women, also the Asian titlists, won the preliminary Group A with two wins in two games. Japan also went into the semi- finals after finishing second in the group with one win against one loss.

Women hoopsters upset Japan to reach semis
China's Miao Lijie (3rd left) passes the ball to her teammate during the game with Japan in Doha Asian Games December 8, 2006. China won 75-60 and reached the semi-finals. [Xinhua]

China raced to an 8-2 lead in the first quarter before Japan pulled it back and overtook the lead at 14-13 on back of strong performance from sharp shooters Noriko Sakakibara and Yuko Oga.

During the second quarter, China used a 20-4 run to go up 38-23 and held it to 42-31 at the half time.

"We still need to improve our persistence," said China head coach Thomas Maher. "We can play really good basketball for five minutes and then in a minute we just hand them some baskets."

"We have to get past that if we want to be a great team," Maher added.

Chen Nan led China with 14 points and nine rebounds with Ren Lei and Miao Lijie adding 13 and 12 respectively.

"We played so so today," Chen said. "We have not played Japan for a while, thus we are not so used to their rhythm."

"They are very quick in offense, it also made some problems for us," Chen added.

Oga and Sakakibara finished with 17 and 16 points respectively for Japan, who could never got its deficit under nine in the second half.