China defeat Chinese Taipei to march into women's basketball final

Team China's Han Xu drives to the basket during the match against Chinese Taipei on Thursday. Photo: Cui Meng/GT

Team China beat Chinese Taipei in their women's basketball match at the 31st FISU World University Games in Chengdu on Thursday, advancing to the finals with the Japanese team, which beat Finland.

On Thursday evening, the ­Fenghuangshan Sports Park Gymnasium, which can ­accommodate 18,000 people, was nearly filled to capacity with enthusiastic spectators who had come to the venue to watch the women's semifinal matches, during which China defeated ­Chinese Taipei with a score of 83:61.

At the beginning of the match, China first scored three consecutive two pointers with their opponent catching up with a two pointer and a three pointer after urgently calling for a timeout. The two ended the first-half with a score of 43:35.

A strong interior presence is one of the biggest advantages of Team China. 

The team has two powerful centers: Han Xu and Liu Yutong. According to the athletes' registered information on FISU, Han stands at 2.08 meters and weighs 89 kilograms, while Liu is 2.01 meters tall and weighs 110 kilograms. 

Chinese Taipei's starting center Lin Tieh, however, is 1.80 meters tall with a weight of 68 kilograms. 

Han, who plays for New York Liberty in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), earned 22 points during the match. 

"I think we played our way tonight. If given the chance, we would definitely come to play with the mainland players. We hope to play against taller teams more often to discover our own strengths," basketball player Peng Hsiao-tong from the Chinese Taipei team told the Global Times after the competition.

Fans react during the women's basketball match at the Fenghuangshan Sports Park Gymnasium in Chengdu on Thursday. Photo: Cui Meng/Global Times

When asked about the finals with Japan, Liu, who scored 11 points on Thursday night, said the play style of the Japanese team and Chinese Taipei have some similarities and that she'll reflect on what she failed to do well during the ­semifinals to prepare for the upcoming match.

On Monday, the Chinese men's team was defeated by the Chinese Taipei men's team with a score of 84-97 in the group stage of the men's basketball tournament, ­suffering their third consecutive loss. 

Team China led by 12 points at one point in the first half, but were subsequently ­suppressed by their opponents. 

Both teams had no chance of advancing to the top eight as they had suffered two consecutive defeats by Lithuania and Brazil in the earlier group stage. 

Team China will have 9-15 placement matches on Friday with Japan.

Chinese Taipei player Yu Ai-che highly praised the ­enthusiastic Chengdu spectators, saying the game atmosphere was fantastic as the audience gave big rounds of applause and cheers to both teams each time a player scored or made a good defensive play.