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Asami Yoshida's floater hands China first loss at Asia Women's Basketball Championship

Xinhua, September 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

Asami Yoshida's three-second floater helped defending champion Japan edge China 57-56, handing the hosts the first loss at the 26th FIBA Asia Women's Basketball Championship here on Tuesday.

With three seconds remaining, Asami Yoshida finished the attack after a fake move in front of Chinese defender, forcing the opponents into a timeout. However, the hosts did not manage to attack the basket, only to suffer their first loss in the tournament.

Asami Yoshida finished with six points, ten rebounds and seven assists. Teammate Ramu Tokashiki helped with game-high 19 points and nine boards.

Huang Hongpin opened the hosts' attack with a jumper, while the visitors responded with Asami Yoshida's layup and Ramu Tokashiki's jumper. Japan took the advantage with an 8-0 run midway and led by 18-13 as the first quarter ran out.

After Gao Song's three-pointer, China got the first lead since their first attack at 23-22. Captain Lu Wen pleased the crowd with a spectacular block on Asami Yoshida with 3:20 to go, while the advantage was still in Japan's hand as they built a six-point lead into the halftime.

Spearheaded by Shao Ting and Huang Hongpin's layups, China began to come back into the game. Chen Xiaojia's shot behind the three-pointer shooting line cut the deficit to two points, before the hosts wasted the opportunity to tie the game on Shao Ting's dribbling turnover 18 seconds before the third period ran out.

Both sides had the tie twice early in the last period, and tied the game at 55 with two minutes to go. Huang Hongpin and Chen Xiaojia made only one of four free throws, giving the visitors the opportunity to secure the victory.

Shao Ting had team-high 15 points. Gao Song and Huang Hongpin added 12 and 10 respectively.

"We did not execute well tonight," said Chen Xiaojia.

China will face Chinese Taipei on Wednesday. Chinese Taipei lost to South Korea 58-76.

Winless Thailand and India had a face-to-face competition, where the former won the game at 65-63.

Japan led in level 1 with a four-game winning streak, with China, Chinese Taipei and South Korea sitting on the second, third and fourth respectively.

In level 2 matches, Kazakhstan crushed over Sri Lanka 78-50, the Philippines downed Hong Kong, China 75-62, and DPR Korea blew Malaysia 83-45. Endi