RUS/JPN - Japan shine to beat giants Russia

TOULOUSE (FIBA U17 World Championship for Women) – Japan edged out Russia 74-68 to finish a highly impressive fifth at the FIBA U17 World Championship in Toulouse on Sunday.

The result also saw Shinichiro Hayashi’s charges avenge their defeat at the hands of the Russians in Group A of the Preliminary Round in Rodez.

The Japanese started out strong by using their impressive speed to run up and down the court. Despite their obvious height disadvantage, they stifled Ksenia Tikhonenko in the paint.

However, keeping the Russian star in check proved a costly strategy as it opened things up for Galina Kisevela and Mariya Davydova who combined for 12 first quarter points to put Russia up 22-12.

Anna Arkhipova-von Kalmanovich’s girls spread the scoring load in the second period and that enabled them to pull away for a 41-26 advantage.

The deadly duo of Yuki Miyazawa and Moeko Nagaoka took over in the third quarter, accounting for all but two of Japan’s points in the period.  They outscored the Russians 22-10 to get within 51-48.
 
Japan carried that momentum into the early part of the final quarter to regain the lead and go up 57-51 oin Yuki Ikeya’s bucket with eight minutes to go.

Russia though awoke from their slumber and tied the game at 61 four minutes, but the Japanese had one last run in them and they used it to close out the game.

Quotes

Shinichiro Hayashi (Japan head coach): After the second quarter we played well. The players did a good job. Russian players are very tall so we had to struggle on rebounds and we did a good job in defense to beat Russia.

Anna Arkhipova-von Kalmanovich (Russia head coach): Two players scored almost all the points. Japan had only four team fouls in 34 minutes. Maybe it is because of their defense, but I have never seen that in my career. I think it’s a miracle in today’s basketball. My girls finished the game after the second quarter. They stopped to play at that moment. A game lasts 40 minutes sometimes more and you should never stop play during the game. It is a lesson for us and a very good experience for my girls.

FIBA/LOC