TPE – Yu-Ting Lin, Chinese Taipei looking for more milestones

PUERTO MONTT (2011 FIBA U19 World Championship for Women) – Whenever Chinese Taipei score a big victory, it seems Yu-Ting Lin is at the forefront.

When they triumphed over South Korea to claim bronze at last year’s FIBA U18 Asia Championship, and qualify for the world championship, Lin top scored with 15 points.

When they recorded Chinese Taipei’s first-ever world championship win, defeating Slovenia on the opening day of the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship for Women, Lin was again their best player with 17 points on 7/11 shooting.
 
Taipei recorded another victory over Chile on Tuesday, beating the tournament hosts 66-41, and Lin was again excellent with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Following the win, the 183cm small forward from Taipei City spent some time chatting to fiba.com about her country’s great run over the past two years.

FIBA: Well done Yu-Ting, you must be pleased to get another win on the board, and a very big win too?
Lin: I am very happy, but we have another game (against France) and we have to win it to have a chance of making it to the first eight of the championship.

FIBA: What have you and the team learned from playing at the world championship?
Lin: In Taiwan some of the players are tall, but here at the world championship almost all the players are tall, so we have been learning how to play against tall opponents. To win we have to shoot well from the three point line.

FIBA: To get to this tournament you had to win a medal at the Asia Championship. To do that you had to beat a very good South Korea team in the bronze medal playoff. What was that game like?
Lin: In that game, in the first period, we were behind by seven baskets and at that time we were very nervous. But the coach told us we shouldn’t be so nervous, just play one possession at a time and just do what we need to do as a team. So we really attacked the rebounds and made fast breaks, and fortunately we had a good shooting night.
 
FIBA: What was the feeling when the buzzer went and you had not only won a medal, but also qualified to play at the FIBA U19 World Championship for Women?
Lin: Originally we didn’t know that we would get to play at the world championship! But when we got to the airport to go back to Taiwan, the coach said to us you are going to play at the world championship.
 
We were all so very excited, it was so good, we were going to get to play against the best players in the world, maybe even the USA players.

FIBA: Not only did you qualify but you won your first game against a tough Slovenian team, your country’s first ever win on the world stage. Tell us about that.
Lin: This was our first time to play at the world championship, the coach told us that everybody thought that we were not very good, so we have to prove ourselves. Our focus was on playing good defence, and I think our good defence won us the game.
 
FIBA: What is your next step after this, I believe it will be on a very different stage to the world championship?
Lin: Yes, after this I go back home and go back to high school, so my next basketball games will be in the high school league.

Paulo Kennedy

FIBA