Original title: Women’s Basketball World Cup: Chinese women’s basketball team beat Puerto Rico to advance to the quarterfinals one round ahead of schedule
Another hearty victory, sending the Chinese women’s basketball team into the quarterfinals of the 2022 Women’s Basketball World Cup ahead of schedule.
The 2022 Women’s Basketball World Cup will be held in Australia for the fourth round of the group stage on the 26th. The Chinese women’s basketball team defeated Puerto Rico 95:60, 3 wins and 1 loss in the group stage, and advanced one round earlier.
The 12 teams participating in the Women’s Basketball World Cup are divided into two groups, and the top four in each group advance to the quarterfinals. The Chinese women’s basketball team is in Group A with the United States, Belgium, South Korea, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Puerto Rico.
In the first three group matches, the Chinese women’s basketball team defeated South Korea and Bosnia and Herzegovina with 107:44 and 98:51 respectively, and lost to the United States with 63:77. As a recognized underdog before the game, Puerto Rico has repeatedly made “amazing moves” in the first few group matches: in the opener, they beat WNBA star Jones by a 24-point advantage (82:58) in a shocking victory. The European dark horse Bosnia and Herzegovina; facing the Belgian team, ranked No. 5 in the world, Puerto Rico also lost by only 3 points (65:68).
Therefore, in the face of this underestimated team before the game, the Chinese women’s basketball team did not dare to be careless, and they still faced with the strongest lineup in this campaign. At the beginning of the game, the Chinese team, who was waiting for it, fully showed its overall strength. After starting at 12:2, the first quarter led by 10 points at 25:15. By the end of the first half, the Chinese women’s basketball team extended the score gap to 26 points with 51:25.
In the second half, the Chinese women’s basketball team made persistent efforts. After ending the third quarter with a 72:42 lead, the fourth quarter chased after the victory and finally won a 35-point (95:60) victory.
In this game, all 12 Chinese women’s basketball players scored, showing their balanced overall strength. Among them, Li Yueru had 16 points and 8 rebounds, Zhang Ru had 14 points and 3 rebounds, Huang Sijing had 12 points and 5 assists, Wu Tongtong had 10 points and 4 assists, and Li Yuan had 8 points and 9 assists. Another statistic of the Chinese women’s basketball game in this game interprets the “essence” of teamwork. The Chinese team sent 41 assists in the whole game. Except for Dilana, who played less than 3 minutes, the other 11 players had assists.
After the four rounds of the group stage, the U.S. team has won all 4 games and ranked first in Group A. Both the Chinese team and the Belgian team have 3 wins and 1 loss. All three teams have advanced to the quarterfinals. Bosnia and Herzegovina, who had lost all four games, was out early. South Korea and Puerto Rico are both 1-3 and will compete for the last eight places in Group A in the final round of the group stage.
At 11:30 on the 27th, Beijing time, the Chinese women’s basketball team will face the Belgian team, the last opponent in the group stage, which is also the second battle in the group A. Although winning or losing this game has nothing to do with the quarter-finals, it is crucial to the prospects of the knockout stage.
According to the rules, in the quarter-finals, the top two teams of each group will face the third and fourth teams of the other group, but the final matchup situation will be decided by drawing lots after the quarter-finals are selected. If the Chinese women’s basketball team wins and ranks second, the opponent in the quarter-finals will be the third or fourth place in Group B; if they lose, they will face the first or second place in Group B in the quarter-finals.
Although the Belgian team is two places higher than the seventh-placed Chinese team in the current world women’s basketball rankings, judging from the performance and results against the same opponents in this World Cup, the Chinese women’s basketball team is even better. In the Tokyo Olympics group match a year ago, the Chinese women’s basketball team defeated the Belgian team 74:62. It is reasonable for the Chinese women’s basketball team to win the old rival again and advance to the quarter-finals as the second place in the group.