The Chinese National Women’s Team continued their hot shooting to defeat the NetScouts Basketball USA All-Stars 100-82 in Jinzhong City Tuesday night before a crowd of 3,416. 5’11 Miao Lijie and 6’3 Gao Song combined for 43 points on 16-for-19 shooting to propel Team China to the victory.
Team China is off to a 2-0 lead in the three-game series called the 2012 Longrich Cup Sino-American Women’s Basketball Pre-Olympic Challenge.
The USA All-Stars competed better in this contest trailing 27-21 after the first quarter. Lijie had 10 points for Team China on perfect 3-for-3 shooting. Team China extended their lead to 54-38 at halftime. USC’s Ashley Corral tried to keep the Americans in the game with 4-for-4 sgooting on three-pointers. However, Lijie and Song were unstoppable for China, Lijie had 17 points at halftime on 6-for-7 from the field including 3 three’s.
Team China pulled away and extended their lead to 83-58 at the end of the third quarter. The USA All-Stars played better in the final stanza, outscoring China by seven points.
Team China shot 61% from the field in the game including 10-of-15 from long distance. They also connected on 86% of their FT’s (18-of-21). The USA All-Stars also shot well going a combined 53% and hit half their three’s (8-for-16). The USA left some points at the charity stripe shooting only 10-of-17. Team China passed the ball very well with 21 assists on their 36 baskets.
Comments from USA All-Stars Head Coach Chris Denker: “I thought we competed much better at times tonight. We’re playing the sixth best team in the world and have been together less than a week. Team China has been together since March and has played more than a dozen recent games. They have experienced professional players and this is a very valuable learning experience for our team.”
The final game of the series is tonight at 7:30 pm local time in another nationally televised contest.
From here we are off to Heilongjiang to play the Chinese National “B” team in a four-game series starting on July 6th. Heilongjiang is in the extreme northeast of China, bordering Russia and north of North Korea. The area is known for its ice sculpture winter festival.
Katie Bussey (Montana State): 9 points, 1 rebound, 4 assists, 2 steals
Ashley Corral (USC): 17 points (5-of-7 three’s), 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal
Dawn Evans (James Madison): 14 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist
Jence Rhoads (Vanderbilt): 2 points, 3 assists
Briana Gilbreath (USC): 3 points, 0 rebounds
Brittany Carter (Memphis): 4 points, 0 rebounds
Becky Burke (Louisville): 0 points, 0 rebounds
Kristina Santiago (Cal Poly): 2 points, 0 rebounds, 1 steal
Amanda Johnson (Oregon): 5 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists
Kali Bennett (Arizona State): 2 points, 1 rebound, 1 steal, 1 block, 1 assist
Becca Tobin (Arizona State): 12 points (4-for-5 FG), 5 rebounds, 1 block
Cierra Brevard (Florida State): 12 points, 3 rebounds
Looks like balanced foul call based on # of FTs. Maybe they feel sorry for our girls?
Jake
Happy 4th of July USA All Stars…
Dawn keep working hard!!
Roz
Nice game BEC…..HAPPY 4TH and KEEP SHOOTING!!!!!!
Nancy Wise