BEIJING, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- 91, 90, 74. These numbers are just a snapshot of a huge gap among teams in Asian women's basketball.
At the 2021 FIBA Women's Asia Cup which concluded in Amman, Jordan on Sunday, Japan extended their title-winning run to an unprecedented five after laboring to a 78-73 victory over China in the final.
Japan, China, Australia and South Korea once again took all the semifinals spots as they did in 2017 and 2019 since Australia joined the tournament four years ago.
Less than two months after the Tokyo Olympic Games, the FIBA Women's Asia Cup saw some rotation from Olympic participating sides.
Olympic silver medalists Japan switched their head coach and changed more than half their roster going into the Asian continental tournament, while Australia switched out all their Olympians in Amman.
China, after finishing fifth at Tokyo 2020, replaced Sun Mengran and Shao Ting with young guns Yang Hengyu and Li Yifan, and Li Meng was also absent.
But the roster change could not prevent those powerhouses from marching on. With 91-point and 74-point victories over the Philippines and Chinese Taipei in the first two group matches, China faced resistance from Australia before running wild again to defeat the world No. 3 team 82-64.
Reigning champions Japan overwhelmed India 136-46 in the tournament opener, and met challenges from New Zealand and South Korea afterwards, but finished the group phase with three wins in a row and a berth in the last four.
After the big four swept the semifinal spots and automatically entered the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 qualifying tournaments, China and Japan found themselves in totally different scenarios in repeating their duel in the final.
China dominated South Korea 93-69, while Japan was dragged to the last second before escaping with a 67-65 win against Australia.
Dubbed the best shooting team on the planet by FIBA, Japan displayed their shooting touch throughout the tournament, along with a suffocating defense that forced China into 14 turnovers in the final, almost tripling the five they conceded themselves.
Always facing a double team from Japanese players, world-class centers Li Yueru and Han Xu were unable to deal with the ball freely, and China's inside-out tactics did not function well, as Japanese defenders spared no efforts to pressurize the dribblers.
"The pressure is on China who can't fall short for a fifth consecutive time." This was one of the three reasons given by FIBA that Japan could win their fifth straight title.
"It's simply unthinkable that powerhouses China could go at least 13 years without winning a continental title, but that will be the scenario if they fall short here in Amman," FIBA's article continued.
The game mindset indeed played a key role in deciding the champions. Without the experience of Shao Ting and Li Meng, the Chinese players became hesitant in taking care of the ball when the competition intensified and they crumbled late in the game.
But defeat didn't mean the end of the world for China, as their head coach and players expressed optimism towards the future.
"Despite the loss today, we can see the potential, development and hope from this team," commented China head coach Xu Limin.
"The experience that we gained from this match is priceless," echoed Huang Sijing, who led China with 18 points in the final and was named in the tournament's All-Star Five.
"We will remember this game to motivate ourselves to fight hard for Paris 2024," she added. Enditem