2018 Asian Games Recap: August 26th
It was women's quarter finals day at the Asian Games. For some it was a chance to assert their dominance in the tournament, for others it was the chance for a reprieve after a bad start. For all, though, a win would mean a step closer to the medal podium.
Action at the women's tournament at the Asian Games. Picture: Lintao Zhang
Mongolia, who shot 51% from the field, opened their scoring with nine unanswered points and still led Chinese Taipei at the half, but by a single point. With a string of unbroken scoring runs in the second half, Chinese Taipei went on to lead by double-digits, with Huang Yingli going on to score a game-high 28 points as they make the semi-finals with a 76-59 victory over Mongolia.
Kang Lee-Seul, Park Ha-Na and Lim Yung-Hui between them had 56 points for Korea, who also had seventeen three-pointers, shot 50% from the field and made 38 assists in a dominant performance over Thailand. A final attempt to come back would be too little too late for Thailand, who fell to Korea by 106 points to 63.
At the end of a close first quarter, a three from Aya Watanabe put Japan up by one, and in the following period they out-scored Kazakhstan by 23 points to 7. Despite 14 good work on the offensive boards and 14 points from Nadezhda Kovalevskaya, there was no way back for Kazakhstan, as Japan were rampant on offence, making two thirds of all close-range attempts, and the semi-final spot was theres after a 104-57 win.
Playing lockdown defence, moving the ball around well and accurate from the field, China opened their quarter-final game leading Indonesia by 40-6 after one quarter. Li Yueru had 25 points and team mate Han Xu had 22 of her own for China, who eased off towards the end of the game, but it made no difference to the result. China were the heartbreakers in Jakarta, eliminating the hosts by a margin of 141 points to 37.
Chinese Taipei will play Korea for a spot in the final, while the other semi-final will be between Japan and China. All of them tough match-ups.
The men's quarter finals will be played tomorrow, while more information on today's action and the Asian Games can be found by following this link to the official website.
