BENGALURU (India) - Shao Ting stayed true to her trademark move and spin-moved her way to a game-winning basket against Australia, 70-69.

China had led for a majority of the game, but Australia never backed down and reclaimed the lead for the first time since the first quarter at 69-68 with a driving layup by Leilani Mitchell.

Momentum was swinging towards the Opals with only 10 seconds left in the game, before China turned to their trusted superstar. It was Shao who had been guarding Mitchell in the previous play and she found herself with the ball in her hands off the inbounds for a potential game-winning play.

Dribble left, spin right. It’s a move she had done many times prior to this. It was topped off with an off-balanced left handed floater to avoid the defense of Ezi Macbegor which rolled in for the win.

China had lost their previous match at the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2018 and the two exhibition games to Australia leading up to their first meet at the Women’s Asia Cup. There is no doubt that the team were highly motivated to come into this game aiming for a victory, especially with them eyeing to reclaim the Asia Cup crown.

Shao put in the finishing touches of the victory with her heroic drive, but it was an inspiring and unexpected performance from 23-year-old Wang Siyu that carried China early on. Despite scoring a total of 3 points in the previous two games, Wang exploded for 13 points in the first half on 6-10 shooting from the field. She finished the game with a game-high 18 points.

Li Yueru continues to be China’s top performer at this Women’s Asia Cup with 14 points and 9 rebounds in the win. The 20-year-old is averaging a double-double of 10.3 points and a tournament-leading 11.0 rebounds per game.

Jenna O’Hea had 8 points, 4rebounds, and 6 assists for the Opals. However, her bad pass which was picked off by Wang Siyu in the final play of the game meant that they couldn’t even get off an attempt to steal the victory from China.

The win for coach Xu Limin’s team grants them a direct spot to the Semi-finals as the top-ranked team of Group B with a perfect 3-0 record. Australia will now have to play in the Qualifiers to the Semi-finals against the 3^rd ranked team from Group A.

FIBA