U19W - Host nation eyes victory as Quarter Finals loom

PUERTO MONTT (2011 FIBA U19 World Championship for Women) - Puerto Montt Arena will be close to overflowing on Day Five of the FIBA U19 World Championship for Women, as host nation Chile face Chinese Taipei in one of the matches of the day.

While Nigeria's withdrawal granted Chile a win in Group C, tonight's match-up is their first real chance to record a victory on-court.

Hindering their chances is an injury cloud over star guard Barbara Cousino, who has been their leading scorer so far in the tournament with 12 ppg. It has been Chile's defence that has been most impressive though, giving up only 72 ppg, whereas Chinese Taipei's opponents have scored at 83 ppg.

The Asian bronze medallists will be relying on their scoring prowess, which saw them defeat Slovenia 83-73 on opening night to secure their first win in U19 world championship history. Yu-Chen Wei has been their leading scorer at 11.5 ppg at an impressive 50% from beyond the arc.

Outside of the host nation, perhaps the most anticipated match of the day sees undefeated Canada play the rampaging Japan. Canada coach   Rich Chambers knows he has a big challenge in front of him.
 
"Tomorrow if we don't get back to playing like that (first half) we are going to get thundered. (Japan) are playing the best basketball, for what they have, of any team in the tournament," he said.

"Everyone I have seen play Japan has played them very fast. We can't do that, we have got to somehow slow the game down, but that's easier said than done."

Japan will again be without Aya Watanabe, but seem to have an array of players who can fill up the scoresheet, as evidenced by Shiori Takada's 31-point explosion against Italy. Tournament leading scorer Nirra Fields will again be relied upon to keep Canada's score ticking over.

Coming off their heartbreaking final second loss to France, Spain face an even tougher test in the undefeated Australia. Behind the excellent interior play of Tayla Roberts, the Gems have not been troubled in their three games so far, but Spain will be looking for a big game from star Queralt Casas, who shot just 1/9 against France.
 
"I have never seen Australia play, I have heard about them but really, I have no expectation and we will see what happens." Casas said.


France will take on undefeated Brazil with wind in their sails after their incredible win last night. Coach Jerome Fournier feels his team is starting to come into its own. "My team played very hard defence.
 
 "I expected this defence for a lot of days, and today it (finally) came out" he said. "Brazil will be another tough game, and we will take a lot of confidence from this game."
 
China and Russia meet in the opening game of the day, with the loser all but eliminated from Quarter Final action. China nearly caused the upset of the tournament against the USA, shooting 11/22 from long range.

If they can again shoot with such accuracy, the Russian offence, which has averaged just 60 ppg for the tournament, will struggle to keep up. Star centre Ksenia Tikhonenko scored just 9 points in yesterday's loss to Canada, and will be looking to bounce back with a big game.

Italy have the tough task of playing the USA coming off their underwhelming performance against China. The European champions, who struggled with the pressure defence of Canada and Japan, will need to have made some adjustments to counter the athletic Americans.
 
Not surprisingly though, USA coach Jennifer Rizzotti is not taking anything for granted. "Italy are a bit different than China in that they're smaller and faster so I think they'll try to create a little more havoc defensively hawking the basketball but they also play zone," she said.
 
"We are working a lot on our zone execution and I told my players that that's what we're going to see from here on out, a lot of teams backing them in and challenging the outside shot."

In the day's other game at Puerto Varas, Argentina play Slovenia for 13th position.


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