WOQT rivals Venezuela, China feel sense of urgency to get better in a hurry

TAIZHOU (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments) - Venezuela coach Oscar Silva has known for a long time that it will be a big ask for his team to clinch one of the five spots on offer at the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament (WOQT) in June.

That fact was reinforced when the Vinotinto were swept, 3-0, by China in a friendly series in the Far East. The games were played on 6, 8 and 10 April.

Even so, Silva, who steered his team to a fifth-place finish at 2015 FIBA Americas Women's Championship in Edmonton, Canada, did see cause for hope in the series with China that is serving as part of his side's warm-up for the South American Women's Championship in, Barquisimeto, Venezuela.

He was upbeat because of the team's improvement on defense. After falling 74-49 in the opener and then 73-58 in the second friendly, Venezuela lost 59-47 on Sunday. While China were at times sloppy with the ball on offense, some of the credit was owed to Silva's defense.

"The work that we have done here is very helpful," Silva said. "We gained confidence..."

Defensively we grew up. We showed that despite being smaller, we can defend against this type of opponent, but we can be better. - Silva

Offensively is where Venezuela need to get better and fast if they are going to have a chance of beating China or Spain in Group D at the WOQT. They will take on China on 13 June and then square off against the Spaniards two days later.

Venezuela must finish in the top two of that pool to advance and stay in the hunt for an Olympic berth.

Silva will be looking for improvement, which should occur when Cleyder Blanco and Ana Garcia are in the team and playing big minutes.

"We took a lot of rebounds," Silva said. "We need to keep working on boxing out so as not to allow many offensive rebounds (for the other team)."

Venezuela have travelled to Spain to continue their preparations for the South American Championship and the WOQT.

China, meanwhile, are being told by their coach, Tom Maher, that they better snap out of their funk on offense or risk missing out on the Olympics. The team had a 27-turnover horror show in the third game against Venezuela. Maher had been encouraged by his team's first win but after the third, he was not as happy.

"I'm very disappointed," he said. "We worked really hard but during this game, our performance was not good enough.

"We are not mentally strong enough. We fell apart at the foul line. We fell apart by making mistakes, and that made the game much tougher."

FIBA