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[Newsphoto] |
Defending champion China are within one step from
winning its fourth straight title at the Asian under-18 women's basketball
championship after trouncing Japan
89-51 in the semifinal in Guangdong on Wednesday.
China will face South Korea in Thursday's final, while Japan have to
fight for the third place with Chinese Taipei.
The Chinese team, who had a clear-cut advantage over their Japanese
opponents in average height, dominated inside and the boards throughout
Wednesday's match.
The host team opened the first quarter with a 30-11 lead. Zhang Wei hit
three 3-pointers in the second as China stretched the lead to 53-19 at
halftime.
China, who had crushed Japan 109-47 earlier in the group stage,
relented after the break,
allowing the Japanese to score 20 points in the third quarter, more than
their total in the previous two.
Chinese head coach Sun Fengwu brought on several substitutes in the
last period, hoping to rest his key players for Thursday's final. But
Japan failed to take the advantage and never pulled within to 34 points.
 "I think, today we played even better than our first meeting with
Japan in the group stage, though the winning margin was smaller," said
Sun.
"We didn't try our utmost in the second half because we still have one
match to play tomorrow. That's why I made a few substitutions in the last
quarter," he added.
Zhang scored a game-high 22 points. Wang Baiyu came off the bench to
add 10 points and nine rebounds for China, and center Guan Xin notched 10
points.
Chie Kabaya was the leading scorer for Japan with 12 points. Kozue
Tanaka chipped in 10 points.
China shot 30-for-56 from the field, while Japan was just 16-for-47.
The Chinese outplayed their opponents 49-21 in rebounding.
China went 6-for-10 from 3-point range.
The biennial
regional tournament kicked off on Friday and runs through Thursday. Top
two finishers of the event qualify for next year's world
championship in Tunisia.
(Xinhua) | 
Updated: 2004-10-21 10:33