Australia beat Japan anew, achieve unprecedented three-peat

AMMAN (Jordan) - Australia kept their mastery of Japan, 80-74, to annex their third straight gold medal in the FIBA U16 Women's Asian Championship 2023, Sunday at the Prince Hamza Sport Hall.

Jesse-May Hall and Ruby Perkins conspired for the telling 12-0 run to erase a four-point deficit and give the Sapphires a 73-65 lead with 2:16 left to play, and they would never fall behind from then on as they eventually became the first-ever team to win a three-peat in the competitions.

Also playing a key part behind their historic success were Sienna Lehmann and Sophie Taylor as the tandem came through with timely baskets in the endgame to keep the Akatsuki at bay.

With this win, which further extended their unbeaten winning streak to 18, Australia have now tied China for the most number of titles in the U16 Women's Asian Championship.

Hall paced the Australians with 21 points. Lehmann produced 20 points, while Taylor and Perkins supplied 12 and 11 markers, respectively.

Meanwhile, Kokona Abe finished with a game-high 22 points to lead Japan, who remain in search for their first gold medal since winning it all in 2011.

Otoha Goto made 18 points while Kokona Suzuki added 11 as the Japanese settled for another silver medal for the fifth straight time, sixth overall.

 

New Zealand cop first medal

The third-place game saw New Zealand rely on their swarming defense down the stretch to turn back Chinese Taipei in another tight affair, 66-63, and bag home the bronze medal.

Bailey Flavell led the Junior Tall Ferns with 16 points and 12 rebounds on the way to annexing their first-ever podium finish after finishing fourth in their previous two campaigns.

Flavell helped out Pahlyss Hokianga and Keriana-Marie Hippolite in putting together six straight points to give themselves 62-59 lead with 53.4 seconds left to play - a run they were able to pull off big thanks to their tough coverage on the other end that forced turnovers.

Rica Enriquez-Paea would contribute moments later, calmly sinking both of her free throws to settle what would be the final count as the crew prevented Chen Chia Shan Pan from tying the game by forcing the sharp-shooting guard to launch from way beyond the arc as time expired.

Hokianga finished with 10 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals. Jennifer Mailei came off the bench and produced 10 markers as well in New Zealand's first medal.

Yu Chen Peng and Yu Ting Hsu, on the other hand, finished with 15 points apiece to lead Chinese Taipei, who last finished third in the inaugural edition in 2009. This year's finish marks the fourth time that they will finish fourth in the biennial youth tournament.

 

Korea finish fifth

Lee Gahyun saved her best for last as she powered Korea past China, 84-63, to secure a fifth-place finish in the classification round closer earlier in the day.

The 1.80 M (5'11') forward finished with a tournament-best 36 points on a 54.5-percent shooting clip, on top of 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 4 steals, and 5 blocks in 40 minutes as she did a little bit of everything to help her side buck a slow start on the way to finishing the tilt with a win.

Korea were down 13 early but got their flow sooner, with Lee joining hands with Hwang Hyeonjeong, Lim Yeonseo, and Lee Wongjun for a 15-4 rally to tie the game at 24-all at the end of the first.

There would be no stopping the team since then as they poured it all on both ends in the middle quarters to take control of the game all the way to the final buzzer.

Lim finished with 20 points and eight rebounds, while Hwang supplied 17 markers built on 5 3-pointers for the Koreans, who ended the tourney with an overall record of 3-2.

Dou Huang, on the other hand, led the Chinese with 18 points and 6 rebounds in the defeat. Yaqi Liang and Yuhe Zhao were her only support with 10 markers apiece.

China did show some signs of life in the final minutes when they forced Korea to multiple turnovers and managed to slice what was once a 24-point gap to just 14, 63-77, but that was the closest they could ever get as Hwang and Lim scored the game's 7 points to seal the deal.

This is the first time ever that China finished sixth in the U16 Women's Asian Championship. They never finished lower than third in the previous editions until now.

 

FIBA