The hopes of Chinese Taipei were dealt a cruel blow when star player and the tournament's leading scorer, Chiang Feng Chun was hit with three fouls in the opening five minutes - sending her to the bench. Lin Hui Mei took on the scoring burden for Chinese Taipei as she scored 13 points in the opening quarter which finished 24-21 in favour of China.
In the absence of Chiang, one of the taller players for Chinese Taipei, Chen Nan racked up 15 points and eight rebounds in the first half which ended 46-33 in favour of China. China started the second half where they left off in the previous quarter and they appeared a class above their opposition in scoring 28 points to Chinese Taipei's 10 in the third quarter.
The quarter ended with one of the highlights of the tournament as star Chinese captain and point guard Miao Lijie, who finished the game with 20 points, put up a ridiculous but ultimately successful one-handed three-quarter-court shot that brought the crowd to its feet. Chinese Taipei were simply playing out time in the final quarter as they were forced to settle for the silver by a completely dominant China team.
The comprehensive final margin of 31 points allowed China's Australian coach Thomas Maher to give playing minutes to his entire 12-woman roster. Chen Nan was a threat to Chinese Taipei throughout and she finished with 19 points and 10 rebounds while Chen Xiaoli was also influential in scoring 21 points and collecting 12 rebounds.
The gold medal for China's women's team means the Chinese men's team will have the opportunity, should they win gold against Qatar on Friday, of making a historic double for men's and women's gold in the same Asian Games.
After the game, China's Australian coach Thomas Maher said: "I think that is a fitting difference between the two teams. They win games by scores of 90-80 not 60-50, so if you can keep them to 60 points then you beat them. They had 21 points in the first quarter so that's an 80 point ball game. We dominated them defensively after the first quarter and they struggled to score for the rest of the game.
"It's part of the journey to Beijing (2008 Olympics). If we didn't win this tournament it would have been a total failure. We have another two years and we need that because we are not ready for a medal yet."
Chien Wei Chuan, Chinese Taipei's captain said : "It would have been perfect if we had won. However, we did not. There is a gap between us. To have this result, I am happy with it. They have many talented people."
15th Asian Games, Doha 2006
Posted December 17th, 2006 by COBA
