The Opals have fallen to an agonising 2-point defeat to China in an exhilarating Ladies’s Basketball World Cup semifinal.
Key factors:
- Sami Whitcomb high scored for the Opals with 15 factors
- Steph Talbot scored 12 factors and had 10 rebounds
- Liwei Yang scored 18 factors for China and Siyu Wang had 14 factors
With the scores stage within the dying seconds, a late foul from Sami Whitcomb gave Siyu Wang two pictures from the free-throw line handy China the lead with 3.4 seconds remaining.
Australia instantly known as a timeout to muster for one final throw of the cube, however missed their likelihood to stage the scores as China prevailed 61-59 in entrance of a raucous crowd of over 11,000 on the Sydney Superdome.
The Opals will rue a low capturing share from the sector and can now face Canada in a bid to safe the bronze medal.
No matter the results of Saturday’s ultimate towards the USA, China will go away Sydney having recorded their equal-best outcome at a World Cup — they took silver in 1994 and haven’t completed on the rostrum since.
China had been foul inclined within the first quarter and unable to match Australia for rebounds, however shot with superior accuracy.
Cayla George and Marianna Tolo each missed regulation lay-ups within the first quarter to set the tone for a wayward capturing efficiency throughout the board.
Australia had been within the unfamiliar scenario of being outsized by their opponents, with guard Whitcomb proving a extra prolific scorer than the Aussie talls early on.
She iced two three-pointers early within the second quarter to assist the Opals preserve tempo as China threatened to drag away.
The two.08m-tall Xu Han went on the rampage for China, scoring as many factors as your entire Australian group within the second quarter (13) to offer her facet a six-point lead on the principal change.
Needing to come back again from their lowest half-time rating of the event, the Australians regarded to the youngest member of their group: Ezi Magbegor.
Whereas she couldn’t match the Chinese language for peak, Magbegor parlayed her athleticism into eight factors in two-and-a-half minutes early within the third.
Predictably, Steph Talbot was Australia’s defensive talisman as they restricted China to a miserly 11 factors in that quarter.
However sloppy capturing continued to hang-out the Australians, whose precision from deep abandoned them.
When Whitcomb pounced on the unfastened ball and charged up the court docket within the ultimate quarter, the Opals had been lastly again on stage phrases after trailing for nearly two quarters.
A Talbot lay-up gave Australia the lead for the primary time for the reason that second interval however the sides continued to go blow-for-blow.
Talbot turned the ball over within the ultimate minute and China’s Wang streaked away to stage the scores at 59-59 and drive an Australian timeout.
Wang stepped as much as the stripe after being fouled by Whitcomb within the ultimate 4 seconds and made each pictures to revive China’s lead.
After an Australian timeout, Magbegor had the prospect to attract the scores stage after the restart however her shot bounced off the rim and the Chinese language had been house.
AAP/ABC
