WCBA 2/2008 - Jiangsu 75, Shanghai 74

With the news only coming recently that Ann Strother was on the fast plane to China, we still don't know whether or not the mysterious "An Sizhuo" is actually Ann Strother, but a bevy of circumstantial evidence is pointing to the positive. Therefore, until I know otherwise, we'll work with that assumption and write up Jiangsu's games.

Jiangsu (2-0) took on visiting Shanghai (0-2). Shanghai was looking for its first WCBA win this year, and as you can tell, they lost 75-74.

Writeups of the game - from what I can decipher from Translate Google's fractured English - had Jiangsu by as much as 14 points behind late in the game, and Jiangsu was down 64-52 at one time. However, Jiangsu made a comeback with the balance supposedly being a critical foul in the last seconds that sent a Jiangsu player to the freethrow line that scored the final points for Jiangsu in front of a crowd of 4,000 people.

This was one of those awful shooting games that no one wants to watch. Jiangsu shot only 34 percent and Shanghai didn't do much better at 37 percent. The game was a virtual reboundfest, with teams putting up...well, I suppose astronomical numbers doesn't do it justice.

Jiangsu: 28 offensive rebounds, 35 defensive.
Shanghai: 22 offensive rebounds, 34 defensive.

I don't even see how this is possible. That's 117 rebounds in this game. A rebound every 20 seconds. Has anyone seen such a thing?

Shanghai led in turnovers 18-10 and ultimately, they sent Jiangsu to the line 27 times, compared to going just 7 times themselves. Jiangsu stayed away from any sort of foul trouble, and this won them their second victory of the year.

Ann Strother was the new arrival. She scored a grand total of four points - 1 for 10 shooting overall, making two free throws. That's four points on 12 attempts, simply horrible. A Chinese news article implied that

a) "An Sizhuo" was a new foreign acquisition, and
b) She had only been in the country a couple of days, and they hoped that she'd do better when she settled down.

She played 24 minutes. Not a bad way to lose the rust.

Only seven players took the floor for Jiangsu, they needed all the help they could get - forenigh or otherwise. Chen Xiaojia lead with 20 points and 9 rebounds, and three players had double-doubles with the limitless amount of rebound going on. ("Anyone want 10 rebounds today? Go get them!")

Shanghai was able to start 10 points but rebounds, rebounds, and more rebounds would be all that they'd get out of their visit to Jiangu. Oddly enough, no one had more than 10 rebounds. Yang Li led all players with 14 points and 9 rebounds, while Li Qin scored 14 points and had 5 rebounds.

The English language boxscore is here. Go marvel at the rebounds; it's a statistical work of art.

Shanghai goes on the road to play Liaoyang (0-2) on Saturday.