WCBA 10/2008 - Yunan 104, Jiangsu 80

Jiangsu (6-4) had an outside chance to take third place in the WCBA. If Hayao lost and Jiangsu won, it would left Jiangsu one game behind Liaoning and Bayi Telecom. Jiangsu's opponent was 11th-place Yunan (3-7), so it should have been a simple task. Instead, Jiangsu went to Yunan and got flattened 104-80 on the road.

The boxscore is here.

Looking at the quarter by quarter score tells you all you need to know. Instead of rolling over, Yunan fought Jiangsu point by point. They ended with a tied first quarter, and going into halftime, the home team led by one, 49-48. When the third quarter started, Yunan began to roll over Jiangsu and continued rolling over them into the third quarter and for the rest of the game. Barring some significant injury, Yunan sensed that they could win this one, and they did win it.

If you're a bad team, you have to do something significant to win, and it was Yunan's shooting that sealed the deal. They hit 66 percent from the field, shades of Villanova-NC State. Shanghai "only" hit 46 percent, but Yunan was on fire. Shanghai beat them in rebounding, had about the same number of turnovers, and scored more points on free throws than Yunan, but that 66 percent shooting was just impossible to overcome.

Mystery "foreign aid" player "Walter希斯蒂格林" returns to the boxscore, and "Walter Green" just killed Jiangsu singlehandedly. She scored 40 points on 17-for-17 shooting. She hit all of her free throws, and picked up three rebounds as well. Cao Bette scored 21 points and "Lina Money" scored 10, but without "Walter" and that amazing performance, Yunan might not have had a chance in the world.

Jiangsu almost pulled it off, but they weren't good enough today. Bian Lan scored 24 points to lead Jiangsu, and Wang Xiao-Li had a double double of 13 points and 10 rebounds. As for Ann Strother, she would start but would only play 25 minutes, only scoring five points and four rebounds. She was 2 for 4 in shooting and 1 for 4 (??) at the free throw line. It wasn't her day today.

If there are pictures, I'll try to post them.