CHENGDU (China) - Cathay Life wasted no time sending a strong message to the field following a 76-70 upset of Fujitsu in the FIBA Women's Basketball League Asia (WBL Asia) inaugurals' opener, Thursday at the Jinqiang International Event Center.
Cheng I-Hsiu, Pin Lo, and Huang Ling-Chuan joined hands in the early fourth-quarter breakaway to help the Tigers seize control, but needed to weather a late-game surge by the Red Wave to come away with the victory in a thrilling curtain-raiser.
Game heroes: Huang top-scored in the triumph with a game-high 19 points on an efficient 63.6-percent shooting from the field, including a 5-of-8 clip from deep.
Former Chinese Taipei U18 standout Hsiao Yu-wen made her presence felt as well, showing that she can perform even in a FIBA club competition as she finished with a double-double of 12 points and 13 rebounds for an efficiency of 17.
Turning point: Game was tied entering the fourth but the troika of Cheng, Pin, and Huang put together an 11-0 run toward a 66-55 lead with 7:41 to go.
Cathay Life would lead by as many as 17 points twice but Fujitsu tried to come back, with Aki Fujimoto trimming the gap to only six with 59.6 ticks left.
But all that the Red Wave could do is make the margin respectable as they struggled to find the mark, and the team from Chinese Taipei would go on to celebrate.
Stats don't lie: The Tigers shot 50-percent from the field, unlike Fujitsu who only made 37-percent of their shots.
FIBA