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Japan defend title with a 35-point crush over hosts China in Asia Women's Championship final

Xinhua, September 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

Japan realized their back-to-back Asian title dream as they crushed over hosts China 85-50 in 26th FIBA Asia Women's Basketball Championship here on Saturday. The defending champion also secured one berth in Rio Olympic Games in 2016.

Four Japanese players had double-figure points, led by Sanae Motokawa's game-high 24 points. Ramu Tokashiki helped with 18 points and seven boards.

China's Shao Ting and Sun Mengran were named in the tournament's All-Star Five, joined by Japan's Ramu Tokashiki, Asami Yoshida and South Korea's Kim Danbi. Ramu Tokashiki won her second straight Most Valuable Player award after the 2013 edition in Bangkok.

After congratulating on Japan's success of repeating what they did two years ago, China's head coach Thomas Maher pointed out his team's disability to handle the pressure as the hosts.

"The opponents played beautiful basketball. That was a good learning experience for us. We've been nervous the whole time here, and that affected us," he said.

Shao Ting opened the hosts' scoring account with a free throw, while being substituted by veteran Zhang Fan with her nose bleeding. Zhang provided fire for the hosts, making another basket with her first touch of the ball.

After trailing by 9-10, the titleholder proved themselves with a 14-1 run since midway through the first quarter and led by 23-11 as this quarter's game time expired.

Japan continued to dominate in the second period with consecutive inside-outside plays between their two superstars, Ramu Tokashiki and Asami Yoshida, and they extended the margin to 22 points into the halftime.

"Come on," fans in Wuhan Sports Center shouted when Chinese players went back to the court from the locker room after the interval.

However, that proved to be of little help to Chinese basketball girls. The visitors' advantage was extended to 30 points after Ramu Tokashiki's jumper early in the third period.

The Chinese team once cut the deficit to 22 points on a 10-2 run, while that was the nearest where they could get. Japan responded with a 12-0 run later in this quarter, and sealed the win with a 35-point advantage at last.

"We did not play at our normal level tonight, especially in positioning and defense, we made a lot of mistakes," said Chinese player Sun Mengran.

None of Chinese players scored double-digit points. Chen Xiaojia, Lu Wen, Gao Song and Sun Mengran had seven points apiece.

"We set the pace for the game, and did pretty well in fast break and defense," said Tomohide Utsumi, Japan's head coach.

In 3rd place playoff, South Korea kept seven-point lead from the first quarter to the last second, and beat Chinese Taipei 52-45, finishing in last podium spot.

Three South Korean players had double-digit points. Kim Danbi scored game-high 15 points. Lee Kyung Eun and Kang Ajeong had 12 and 11 respectively.

Huang Ping-Jen scored 11 as the only Chinese Taipei player that displayed double-figure-point performance. Endi