Stress-free: Tai's success mantra for Taipei against Thailand

MEDAN (2015 FIBA Asia U16 Women's Championship) - Chinese Taipei needed a huge effort in the fourth quarter performance to record an 81-70 win over Thailand to record their first win in the competition.

"We came into this game with all our focus to win, a little too hard may be. The girls were probably too stressed because of that," Taipei coach, Tai-Ying Li, said.

Taipei trailed for most of the game, but made their turn around at the start of the fourth scoring the first dozen points of the final period and wrapping it up with a 25-6 final quarter flourish

"My methods are usually strict. But after the third quarter I tried to ease the pressure off them, I wanted them to be stress free," she added.

Taipei have made the Semi-Finals in all the three editions of this event, but have failed to repeat the third place finish they achieved in the inaugural edition held in 2009 at Pune (India).

"We had only 40 days to prepare for this championship, some teams probably had more, I don't think this year we can end the trio's dominance," Tai said.

Thai coach Pongsak Kaewjaidee too rued lack of sufficient preparation for the two successive defeats.

"We lost to a much better organized opponent; but we had our chances," he said.

"Our level is not the same as the top four in the competition, but we're working hard on improving and nurturing a new generation of players capable of taking Thailand's basketball women’s team to a next level.

"With two losses out of two, we will concentrate on defeating India in the next game, It's a must win game for us."

Thunchanok Lumpadappang, one of the more experienced players in the Thailand team, scored a game-high 30 points, but drew a blank in the fourth quarter.

FIBA