JAKARTA, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- China battered Mongolia in their third match of women's basketball at 2018 Asiad, by a large margin of 110-36 here on Monday.
China failed to show their dominance from the beginning as Mongolia took a lead of 8-2 with two three-pointers in the first two minutes. After Liu Jiacen and Li Yuan stood up and contributed five points, China came back to the game with better offence and less fouls, and build up a double-digit lead by the end of the first quarter.
Since then, China didn't give their opponents too much chances to score, finishing the next two quarters by 31-9 and 26-9 respectively. Mongolia only scored one three-pointer in the last quarter.
The 19-year-old Li Yueru scored a team-high 21 points and Huang Sijing contributed 16 points.
Speaking of the tough situation they met at the beginning of the game, team leader Shao Ting thanked their head coach, saying "he (Xu Limin) called a timeout in order to calm us down and get well-prepared for Mongolia's unconventionally strategy, which was a good lesson for us."
It's the third straight win for China's women basketball team at Asiad, they will face Hong Kong, China on Thursday.
Xu told Xinhua that players will try to perform to their best in every match, no matter who their rivals are. "It's for the whole team's long-term benefits," Xu added.
In Monday's other three matches, the Unified Korean women's team crushed their India counterparts 104-54. As for men's preliminary round, Chinese Taipei beat Hong Kong, China 98-67, Indonesia defeated Thailand 98-86.
