4 reasons China can build on momentum for first title in over a decade

SYDNEY (Australia) - No one is underestimating the China women’s national team. We certainly didn’t, as they sit atop the recent update of the Power Ranking.

Still, there must be some part in the back of the minds of this China team that feels that they want to prove themselves as the top dog. Making the leap to second place in the FIBA World Ranking for Women, presented by NIKE is certainly spectacular, as is making it to the Final of the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022, but it could be a lot nicer to end a competition with a win - the win - for once.

Especially at the Women’s Asia Cup where Team China have finished as Runners-up in two consecutive editions and 3 of the last 4 tournaments. Painfully so, the last two losses to the eventual champions Japan were by a single-digit point margin as small as 3 back in 2019.

But there might not be more of a perfect place than here in Sydney at the Women’s Asia Cup 2023 for China to complete their ascension and lift the trophy at the end of the competition for the first time in a long while.

Here are some reasons why China can keep building on their Women’s World Cup momentum :

Continuation

China’s run through the Women’s World Cup was a spectacular one and they are bringing back a large part of that core.

There is team captain Yang Liwei (9.3 points and 3.9 assists in 23.0 minutes per game) and Wang Siyu (9.3 points and 4.4 assists in 21.2 minutes per game), both sharpshooters who converted more than half of their three-pointers last time they were in Sydney.

Then you have the fan favorite Li Meng, who missed the last two games of the Women’s World Cup after averaging 16.0 points on 40.7 percent shooting from beyond the arc.

There’s also Zhang Zu, Li Yuan, Pan Zhenqi, and Jin Qeina, all key players who averaged over 10 minutes per game.

Of course, there is also Han Xu (more on her in a bit).

While Japan are returning the strength of their 2021 championship core, China are also expected to put up a strong team as well to rise to the challenge.

Veterans

While the core group is relatively young, there is no shortage of experience in Team China. Li Meng has been playing in the Women’s Asia Cup since 2013 when she was only 18 years old. For the majority of this roster, it will not be their first Women’s Asia Cup either.

Therefore, these women know who what sort of challenges are coming up in the competition.

Additionally, all but one player has played in the Women’s Asia Cup before 2013 so they know how tough it is to lose, especially in the Final. That should translate to the players having quite an appetite for the trophy this time around.

There is that one player, Gao Song, that has tasted the Women’s Asia Cup winning ways as she was on the 2011 team - the last Team China to win at the Women’s Asia Cup. The 31-year-old, along with Jin Weina, are the most senior players on the team and she also adds on the experience of having played in five Women’s Asia Cups, two Olympics, and a Women’s World Cup.

Hope of Han

To repeat: Of course, there is also Han Xu.

It’s been an incredible five-year span for Han with the senior national team ever since her debut at the Women’s World Cup in Tenerife. Since the Women’s World Cup in 2018, Han has played through another Women’s World Cup, the Tokyo Olympics, and two Women’s Asia Cups while averaging 11.2 points and 6.3 rebounds per game with a Player Efficiency of 15.1. More than counting numbers, it’s easy to see how much Han impacts the game on both ends of the court whether it’s on offense with her soft-touch shooting or on defense with her shot-altering length.

At Women’s Asia Cup 2023, Han’s impact might be put to the test even more than before as China will not have Li Yueru who is unfortunately nursing an injury. The usual gameplan for China is for both centers to split the minutes between each other to mix things up, but with Yueru out for this campaign, there might be a bit more responsibility for Han to shoulder this time around.

Sydney Streak

China have proven themselves a great team worthy of their achievements. Outside of that, there also seems to be a bit of a boost in their step when they play in Sydney, which is the case for this upcoming Women’s Asia Cup.

At least that’s what we’ve seen at the Women’s World Cup, both in the recent 2022 edition and 1994. Both trips down under for China ended up with them making it to the Final - the only two times in their women’s basketball history. Obviously, they would have preferred to win it all but those two Finals appearances are still the best-ever Women’s World Cup results for Team China.

As the Women’s Asia Cup heads to Sydney for the first time ever, could that be the additional spark of magic China needs to overcome their demons and win their first title since 2011?

FIBA