WCBA 9/2008 - Jiangsu 84, Henan 83

Jiangsu (6-3) would only be able to put seven players on the floor in their game against Henan (4-5). This might be a little inexplicable to most of us, but Jiangsu put only seven or so players on the floor against Bayi Telecom for some unknown reason. Despite being a bit shorthanded, Jiangsu eked out an 84-83 against Henan at home to move into fourth place in the WNBA.

The boxscore is here.

If you look at the quarter by quarter scored, you get the impression that this was a battle - no quarter was won by any team by more than three points. Henan won the second and third quarters; Jiangsu won the first and fourth, coming back from a 64-62 deficit after thirty minutes to win the fourth quarter by three points and take the game. According to an early press report, the game was tied with two minutes in but Henan made a set of blunders that lost them the game.

Henan outshot Jiangsu 48 percent to 40 percent. So why did Henan lose?

1) Jiangsu hit more three points and took three more shots.
2) They outrebounded Jiangsu 46-36, but the battle of offensive rebounds was almost over.
3) TURNOVERS. Henan turned over the ball 24 times, compared to just 13 for Jiangsu.
4. Jiangsu shot 83 percent from the free throw line, going 19 for 23 overall.

Since there were only seven players who got any time - really it was just five players, as a pair of players only played a couple of minutes or so - everyone ended up in double figures. Bian Lan - who Ann Strother says is a big player in women's basketball in China - led with 23 points and nine rebounds. Xu Song had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Ann Strother had 13 points and four rebounds and five steals in 38 minutes of play.

For Henan, Ji Yanyan scored 32 to lead all scorers, but the new foreign sensation "Yolanda" scored a double double worth writing home about - 20 points and 21 rebounds. I haven't been able to figure out who Yolanda is yet. I expect that it's Yolanda Griffith of the Seattle Storm although it's possible that it could be some lesser Yolanda.

Wouldn't it be much nicer if all the players just went by their nicknames?
According to Strother, this is the list of team nicknames.

Dong-Dong
Qua-Qua
Shan-Shan
Duck
ShuGa
Lilia
Pian-La
Da Bowl
and Ann Sizhou, which is what Ann Strother is called in China.

The coach of Jiangsu is listed as Xiong Ding. He is called Mr. Ding, and inexplicably, he prefers to be addressed as "Ding Dong". Mr. Ding Dong is a very serious man, but Strother still can't help but laugh sometimes when she hears that.

We at the Atlanta Dream Blog wish Ann Sizhou and Mr. Ding Dong all the success in the world at the WCBA.