Liaoning are WCBA Champions

Liaoning, the team that knocked out Jennifer Lacy's former team Beijing out of the WCBA playoffs has been crowned the WCBA champions with a 79-64 victory. The loser was Bayi Telecom.

This still leaves unanswered the question of whether Jennifer Lacy will attend the WCBA All-Star Game, which is scheduled for February 15th in Beijing. I believe that on January 26th the Chinese Basketball Association invalidated the lineups and removed Lacy from the starting position. I don't see her on any current All-Star list.

It's a shame that her fans in Beijing didn't get to see her one more time. Maybe she'll be back next year.

WCBA Semifinals 2/2008 - Liaoning 79, Beijing 67

Jennifer Lacy introducing Jia Guang to WNBA-style play.

After losing the first game of the semifinals, Beijing needed a win to have a chance at being the first WCBA champion that wasn't either Bayi Telecom or Liaoning. They traveled to Liaoning for a must-win game, but fell 79-67. It was Beijing's second loss in a best-of-three series, and Beijing is officially eliminated from contention. Liaoning goes to the finals for the fourth straight year.

I managed to get Google Translate to give me a translated box score here. Your mileage may vary. If that link doesn't work, try this one.

So what happened? Beijing was missing leading scorer Zhang Wei because they leased her from Liaoning at the beginning of the season - obviously, she wasn't going to be allowed to play against a team that held her contract. Beijing managed to lead Liaoning 24-22 at the end of the first quarter, but in the second, Beijing was just held to 11 points and Liaoning took a 41-35 lead into the break.

Beijing fought back in the third quarter to cut the lead down to three points, 58-55 at the end of three quarters. Beijing would manage to close the gap to just one point, 62-61, with five minutes left, but Beijing would be outscored 17-6 in those final five minutes.

In terms of shooting, this was a premiere game from both sides. Liaoning shot 50 percent and Beijing shot 41 percent, but both teams shot over 50 percent from inside the 3-point arc. Both teams hit about 25 percent of their three pointers, but Beijing made 26 attempts to Liaoning's 11 (it only resulted in three extra hits for Beijing).

Beijing picked up more offensive rebounds, winning that battle almost by a 2-1 margin. Turnovers were even. What crushed Beijing was sending Liaoning to the line 26 times - and Liaoning hit 22 of their free throws, scoring at an 84 percent margin. Excellent shooting at the free throw lilne has sent Liaoning to the finals once again, where they will meet either Bayi Telecom or Jiangsu. (Bayi Telecom won their game, evening the Bayi Telecom/Jiangsu series at 1-1. The rubber game of the match is tomorrow.)

"Yang half with" - whoever she is - led Liaoning with 20 points. Tangela Smith scored 19 points and had seven rebounds, shooting 7-for-10 from the field. Ma Zengyu would also score 18 points for Liaoning.

As for Beijing, it was hoped that Zhang Fan would be a big force for the visitors, but she suffered an injury and only played seven minutes, scoring only six points. Zhang Lin would score 23 points and eight rebounds to lead all Beijing players. The only other player to score in double digits was "周宏华" with 12 points. Ten players would score points for Beijing, but Jennifer Lacy would only score five points in 32 minutes of play. Lacy also scored six rebounds and had four assists. For some mysterious reason, Lacy did not start.

(* * *)

So Jennifer Lacy's season is over, and she's theoretically free to return to the United States. However, through an act of ballot box stuffing, Lacy got enough votes to be named the starting center for the North All-Star Team of the WCBA. The WCBA plans on playing an All-Star Game on February 15th - if they can find someone who will host it.

Was today's game Jennifer Lacy's last game in China? Or will there be another?

Jennifer Lacy - Chinese All Star?

According to the linked article, Jennifer Lacy was just named the starting center of the North Team for the WCBA All-Star Game.

Guess Jennifer won't be coming home until after February 15th. Supposedly, there was some ballot-stuffing by Beijing fans - Yolanda Griffith of Henan ended up sixth or seventh. (Hands up - which one is better?) I enjoy the following commentary:

This shows that Internet voting is sometimes mischievous. However, Yolanda people do not attach importance to this, she is already the two Olympic champions, have been WNBA championship WCBA All-Star selection can not, can only say that the way this selection is very ridiculous.

Unfortunately, the WCBA faces a lot of problems of the WNBA: "WCBA All-Star Game to develop in February 15, 2009 held, but the venue has not yet been determined. It is understood that the Chinese Basketball Association wanted to get organized to give them 300,000 yuan to the contractor the race, but women's influence is limited, so far nobody wants to take over."

WCBA Semifinals 1/2008 - Liaoning 81, Beijing 74

Liaoning needed to win two of three games against Beijing to go to the finals, but would have to travel to Beijing for the first game. They overcame that first obstacle by winning 81-74 on the road. Beijing will now have to win on Saturday and on Sunday in order to advance to the WCBA finals - one loss and Beijing is done for the season.

The translated boxscore is here.

Beijing had two problems. First, Beijing's main scorer Zhang Wei wasn't allowed to play - because she was leased (like a soccer player) at the beginning of the year from the Liaoning team. Second, Beijing was dominated in the paint due to Tangela Smith having a massive game. Beijing was able to keep up, behind 20-18 after the first quarter and 36-33 at haltime. Liaoning then turned on the full court press and Beijing began to fade away. They were down by eight (59-51) at the end of three quarters and never got an offensive rhythm.

Liaoning outshot Beijing 58 percent to 43 percent, but Liaoning took fewer shots - part of the disparity comes from Beijing's 5-for-18 performance at the boards. Liaoning only got four offensive rebounds compared to Beijing's 11 offensive rebounds. Furthermore, Liaoning turned the ball over more. Unfortunately for Beijing, they sent Liaoning to the free throw line 20 times and Liaoning hit 16 shots.

Zhang Fan led all Beijing players with 25 points, six assists and five rebounds. Sun Yu scored 12 points and 18 rebounds for Beijing. Two other players would score in double digits for Beijing, including Jennifer Lacy, who scored 10 points but only had two rebounds for Beijing.

Leading Liaoning - and dominating the game - was Tangela Smith with 27 points and 13 rebounds. She shot 12-for-15 in the game. Ma Zengyu scored 19 points in the game, and "Yang half with" scored 13 points and four rebounds.

WCBA Quarterfinals 2/2008 - Beijing 65, Guangdong 55

Who's that American girl in the front row?

You only need to win two of three in the opening round of the WCBA Quarterfinals to move on, and with their win over Guangdong, Beijing will advance to the WCBA Semifinals.

All of the higher ranked teams won the second and deciding game of their first round series. The semifinals start Wednesday and are a best-of-three affair. Beijing will end up playing either Bayi Telecom or Liaoning in the semifinals, and the first game will be played in Beijing.

It looks like Google Translate and WCBA have declared peace. The translated boxscore is here.

Guangdong took the lead they needed early on, and led after the first quarter 19-15. After that, Beijing's talent came to the top. They led 34-31 at halftime and held Guangdong to just 11 third quarter points. Guangdong would get to within three points in the final two minutes, 55-52, but Beijing would score 10 points in the final two minutes to close the game.

Beijing had the shooting edge, hitting 44 percent of its attempted field goals compared to 41 percent for Guangdong. Guangdong hit more field goals from 3-point range, but Beijing took more shots.

Beijing had the edge in offensive rebounding and in visits to the free throw line. The critical problem was Chasity Melvin who scored seven points and 10 rebounds in 39 minutes (she's listed under "Richard Nesti") but made six turnovers and only shot 28 percent.

For Beijing, Zhang Fan led with 21 points and seven rebounds as well as three block shots. Seven other players scored for Beijing including Jennifer Lacy, who started for Beijing and scored seven points (but committed four fouls) in 30 minutes of play.

Song Xiayun led all Guangdong scorers with 17 points. Wei Wei would also score nine points and six rebounds for Guangdong.

Funny, for a quarterfinal match, you think there would pictures all over in a country as large as China. Oh well. I got a picture from a lone Chinese blogger, so thank you! The larger version is here, and in high resolution, Jennifer Lacy looks really nice.

WCBA Quarterfinals 1/2008 - Beijing 87, Guangdong 60

If you're going to win a championship, you have to be able to go to your opponent's home site and knock them out. Beijing, the third place finisher in the Women's Chinese Basketball Association, managed to do just that by going to #6 Guangdong and beating them 87-60 on the road.

The series is a best-of-three series. Beijing hopes to move on to the semifinals on Saturday when Guangdong visits Beijing.

The untranslated boxscore is here. The WCBA is having a massive case of fail when it comes to having their boxscores translated by Google.

Both teams played as evenly as one can imagine in the first half of the game, with the score tied up 37-37 at halftime. From the third quarter on, however, it was all Beijing, when Beijing held the home team to a grand total of seven third-quarter points. At the end of three quarters it was 65-44, and the rout was on.

Beijing outshot the home team 56 percent to 39 percent. What killed Guangdong? Well, she who lives by the 3-point shot dies by the 3-point shot. Guangdong went 1-for-12 from behind the 3-point arc.

Guangdong was better at the offensive boards and outrebounded Beijing 30-28. Both teams were about even in turnovers. Beijing would send Guangdong to the free throw line 19 times, so Beijing really needed to shoot better than Guangdong. Compare Beijing's 12-for-22 behind the 3-point arc vs. Guangdong's 1-for-12 and you have the secret of Beijing's success right there.

"Huang Hung DIPY" led all players with 15 points and 5 rebounds for Guangdong. The only other player to finish in double digits for Guangdong was Zhu Lin with 10 points. Ding Park would lead Guangdong in rebounds with nine points and six rebounds.

Five players would score in double digits for Beijing. "Zhang" (which one?) led all Beijing scorers with 20 points and seven assists. "Fan" scored 14 points and three rebounds and Sun Yu also scored 14 poiints and three rebounds. "周宏华" was the lead rebounder with 11 points and 7 rebounds.

What about Jennifer Lacy? It wasn't her best game - seven points in 18 minutes on 2-for-6 shooting with a couple of free throws. She did get five rebounds, though.

Elsewhere in WCBA quarterfinals action, Bayi Telecom beat Liaoyang 89-72, Jiangsu beat Henan 84-82 and Liaoning beat Hayao 94-84. All of those games were first games of a three-game series.

WCBA 22/2008 - Beijing 91, Hayao 56

As usual, Translate Google and the WCBA website are sniping at each other, so I don't have a box score. What is clear is that Beijing (15-7) had no trouble with visiting Hayao (12-10) to win 91-56.

Furthermore, Jiangsu lost to Guangdong 100-95. (That's what happens when you get rid of Ann Strother!) This breaks the tie for third place and gives Beijing sole possession of third place.

Unfortunately, no boxscore. Furthermore, there's a suspicious #17 in the Beijing boxscore, and I thought Jennifer Lacy's number was #16! Hopefully, they've not sent her home, too!

Assuming that

1. The standings list is accurate, and
2. Tied teams are listed in order of final finish,

here should be the WCBA 2008-09 playoffs. The first round is a best-of-three series.

#1 Liaoning (17-5) vs. #8 Liaoyang (11-11)
#2 Bayi Telecom (17-5) vs. #7 Hayao (12-10)
#3 Beijing (15-7) vs. #6 Guangdong (12-10)
#4 Jiangsu (14-8) vs. #5 Henan (13-9)

The playoffs start next week. As soon as I can find more about the boxscore - and Jennifer Lacy - I'll write it up.

WCBA 21/2008 - Beijing 77, Shanghai 74

Beijing (14-7) needed just one more win this year to clinch at least a fourth-place regular season finish and a guaranteed home advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Shanghai (4-17) was hoping that they wouldn't finish dead last in the league. Zhejiang lost 89-48 to Liaoning, so both sides get their wish as Beijing wins 77-74 on the road to clinch their spot.

Beijing's last game is December 30th against Hayao (12-9) at home. If they win and Jiangsu (14-7) loses to Guangdong (11-10) on the road, then Beijing would slip into third place to finish the season.

The translated (for now) boxscore is here.

You have to give this game to Beijing - they really wanted it. Beijing came out ice cold and was held to only nine points at the end of the first quarter, down 22-9. However, Beijing immediately began to close the gap and hold Shanghai to 11 second-quarter points. At halftime, Shanghai could only take a 34-33 lead into the break. Shanghai began to tighten their defense, and managed to hit the final three shots of the third quarter to lead 57-53 after three quarters.

Jennifer Lacy, however, provided "frequently in Shanghai manufacturing team insider threats" and the Beijing team took the lead in the last four minutes. In the end, Shanghai was forced to foul and hope for the best, but they let it slip away.

Shanghai had a great shooting game, hitting 52 percent of their shots and 56 percent of their inside shots. Unfortunately for Shanghai, Beijing hit 54 percent of their total shots and 60 percent of their inside shots. Both teams rebounded fairly evenly, and had the same number of turnovers. Shanghai, however, would send Beijing to the free throw line 21 times and Beijing would go 19-for-21, the real key to Beijing's victory.

Feng Yi scored 22 points and had six assists for Beijing. The pair of untranslatable characters known as "焦岚" scored 17 points and four rebounds, and Zeng Meiling scored 11 points for Shanghai.

There were three breakout players for Beijing - Zhang Lin scored 26 points and eight rebounds and Zhang Fan had 15 points and also picked up eight rebounds. Jennifer Lacy would score 19 points, shooting 6-for-9 from the field and hitting all seven of her free throw attempts.

WCBA 20/2008 - Beijing 76, Zhejiang 68

Since there are only 12 teams in the WCBA, the season ends with each team playing 22 games - one home and away against each of its opponents. Zhejiang (2-18) had been mathematically eliminated weeks ago, but they were hoping to sneak by visiting Beijing (13-7). Despite a slow start, Zhejiang appears to have at least kept it interesting before falling to Beijing 76-68.

The win secures a playoff spot for Beijing, as the worst Beijing can finish is at 13-9, which would be them tied for sixth. However, with Jiangsu also at 13-7 and Henan right behind at 12-8, Beijing really needs to win its following two games to secure a fourth place finish and home field advantage in the first round.

I don't have a translated boxscore yet - I just have the original boxscore, which crashes when I try to throw it into Google translate. So I'll just finish this whenever I get a translatable boxscore. I can tell you that Jennifer Lacy led her team in scoring.

More (hopefully) later....

WCBA 19/2008 - Beijing 73, Liaoning 71

As anyone who follows Chinese women's basketball knows, there are only two brides - Bayi Telecom and Liaoning - and a bunch of bridesmaids. Whenever one of these two teams falls, it's probably cause for celebration/fear in some quarters of Chinese basketball. Liaonang (15-4) was the #1 team in China going into this game, and they are still #1, but Beijing (12-7) squeaked by with a 73-71 victory at home.

The win keeps Beijing in fourth place, giving it a home field playoff advantage with three games to go in the regular season. In a 12 team league, there are still 10 teams contending for eight playoff spots. One more win in the next three games will mathematically clinch a playoff spot of some sort for Beijing.

The translated box score is here.

Looking at the quarter-by-quarter score, it appears to be a tight game all the way. The game was tied 36-36 at halftime. Beijing led by two after three quarters (57-55), but Liaoning had not thrown in the towel yet.

With 40 seconds to go in the fourth, Liaoning had recovered the lead and led 70-67. A referee's call - "it seems that the ball was touched round opponent after the referee awarded (Beijing)" - led Liaoning players and their coach to protest and risk a technical.

Beijing scored on their next possession to make the score 70-69, coming within one of Liaoning. With 20 seconds left, Zhou Honghua of Beijing stole the ball and ran the fast break for an easy basket to put Beijing up 71-70. Both sides swapped free throws, and with four seconds left, Jia Guang of Liaoning missed the final bucket that would have sent the game into overtime.

Liaonang had a better scoring percentage than the home team, 53 percent to 43 percent. So where did Beijing find space in the box score to come back? The answer is in the other three "keys to victory". In a game with few rebounds, Beijing got most of the offensive rebounds, leading by a 12-8 margin. Liaoning turned the ball over 19 times to Beijing's 13. Furthermore, both teams were sent to the free throw line equally often, but Beijing was 12 for 16 from the line - Liaoning was 8 for 15.

Who led Beijing? Jennifer Lacy, and she did it in a big way. She scored 20 points and took 20 shots (14 FG, 6 FT) to do it. She picked up eight rebounds to lead both teams. Three other players scored in double figures for Beijing, including Zhang Fan with 17 points and Zhang Lin with 14 points.

For Liaoning, Ji Xiao would lead the visitors with 16 points and four rebounds - no other Liaoning player would have more than four rebounds. Zhang Dan scored 12 points and four rebounds and Chen Xiaoli added 11 points. Tangela Smith, the "foreign aid" player for Liaoning who is also the center for the Phoenix Mercury, scored 10 poitns and four rebounds in only 17 minutes of play.

This was a big win for Beijing. Just remember Jennifer, "one win and you're in!"

WCBA 18/2008 - Liaoyang 65, Beijing 62

This is one of those games that you'd be embarassed to lose. Imagine that you show up to play a team - let's call it "Liaoyang" (8-10) - that only dresses six players. Furthermore, only four of their players actually score in the game. Whereas you - let's call you "Beijing" (11-7) - are able to play nine players to their six. And you're the better team. And yet, you lose, on the road, by three points.

The translated boxscore is here. (I wonder if it's an Internet Explorer thing - the box score translated first time automatically in Firefox.)

The quarter-by-quarter score indicates a back and forth game. After one quarter, Liaoyang is up 13-11 but they only lead by a point at halftime, 29-28. Liaoyang manages to extend the lead to five points after three quarters (40-35) and manages to keep the visitors at arm's length.

How did they do it? Liaoyang outshot Beijing 46 percent to 37 percent, but that's not the whole story. Beijing tried twenty-four 3-point shots and only hit seven of them. Zhou Honghua went 1-for-5 from behind the arc. Zhang Fan went 2-for-9. Jennifer Lacy did a little better, going 2-for-3.

Beijing won the battle of offensive rebounding - 10 of their 27 rebounds were off the offensive glass. Each team had similar turnovers. Unfortunately, Beijing sent Liaoyang to the line 16 times and Liaoyang hit 15 of their shots.

Why was Beijing trying to win this game strictly on the basis of the three pointer when they could have simply muscled the starting six out of the game? We may never know.

Of the six Liaoyang players, two didn't score. The other four, not surprisingly, scored in double figures. Zhang Lan Han scored 23 points. Liu Dan scored 19 and the mysterious "Song Peacekeeping Force" scored 13. Zhao Shuang came close to a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds.

Zhang Fan scored 19 points and six rebounds for Beijing. Zhang Wei scored 14 points but also fouled out of the game. Jennifer Lacy might have had the second best game for Beijing, scoring 10 points and six rebounds in a losing effort.

Will we know the mysterious secret of the Liaoyang-Beijing game? Probably not.

WCBA 17/2008 - Beijing 100, Shangdong 62

The WCBA site is still out. I don't know if the WCBA website is undergoing a major redesign - game results can be found at the CBA page - or if the site's gone down before more people have clicked it, or if it's just falling apart from lack of use. What I do know is that Jennifer Lacy's team, Beijing (11-6), managed to beat visiting Shangdong (7-10) by a score of 100-62.

The boxscore is here.

I don't have a play-by-play, but I wouldn't be surprised if Beijing was never behind during the game. They won every single quarter and took a 43-32 lead into halftime. Shangdong was outscored 57-30 in the second half.

With such a huge point gap, you'd think that Beijing simply outshot Shangdong - and you'd be right. Beijing hit 58 percent of their shots compared to 40 percent by Shangdong. Shangdong was held to only 20 rebounds, and only made 7 of 14 free throws.

Zhang Lin of Beijing led the team with 26 points and 11 rebounds. Jennifer Lacy scored 20 points on 16 shots and made four rebounds - and she did it in only 21 minutes of play. Li Shu scored 12 points, and Zhou Honghua scored nine points and nine rebounds.

For Shangdong, Sun Weiying led with 30 points and five rebounds. The only other player to score in double digits for Shangdong was "Si Secretary" with 10 points.

It doesn't look like Jennifer Lacy is in danger of losing her job. Although, if Ann Strother was removed from Jiangsu, I'd tell Jennifer to keep a suitcase packed, just in case.

WCBA 17/2008 - Jiangsu 104, Liaoning 89 - Has Ann Strother Been Let Go from Jiangsu?

When reading a writeup on some games, I found this translated-into-English-from-Chinese article:

Jiangsu team league before this round of the replacement of the foreign aid, a strong center to replace the Houwei An Williams - Sizhuo this game for the first time the new foreign aid on behalf of the Jiangsu team debut WCBA.

Also note the boxscore: "Ann Sizhuo" wears #16, but we have a new "foreign aid" wearing #17 - "Williams".

I have no way of figuring out who "Williams" is, because the entire WCBA site seems to be down. However, we know that:

1) Ann Strother missed this game, and that I don't think she's missed a game all year.
2) WCBA teams can only have one "foreign aid" player.

I'll try to figure out what's going on.

However, I've also found out that there's going to be an All-Star Game after the regular season. There will be a "Northern" team and a "Southern" team.

It is therefore time to get your votes in. I'll write out a sample ballot later. But obviously, we want to elect "Jennifer Rashid" (Jennifer Lacy) and "Ann Sizhou" (Ann Strother); it's just that the ballot isn't entire straightforward. It's a bit tricky.

WCBA 16/2008 - Beijing 84, Jiangsu 79

With only seven more games left in the WCBA regular season, Jiangsu (11-5) hoped to use Beijing (10-6) as an appetizer before heading on Saturday to take on league-leading Liaoning. Instead, Jennifer Lacy's team pulled the welcome mat out from under the visitors' feet, winning 84-79 at home to remain in fourth place.

The translated boxscore is here.

Looking at the quarter to quarter boxscore, it seems like a fairly even game at first - the score was tied after 10 minutes and Beijing took an 45-41 lead into halftime. Beijing came out strong in the third quarter holding Jiangsu to 15 total points, and Jiangsu's rally in the fourth just wasn't enough to come back and win.

Part of the problem, undoubtedly, was that Jiangsu only had seven players earn any minutes. Sometimes, I wonder what's going on. Are Chinese coaches loathe to substitute, or are there unreported injuries?

Beijing won the shooting battle, 44 percent to 41 percent over Jiangsu, and also hit nine 3-point shots. However, Jiangsu killed Beijing in offensive rebounding, 24-14. They made more turnovers than Beijing, but were better at the free throw line - 76 percent vs. 64 percent. It's hard to find a key to the game that gives Beijing the win; I guess you had to be there.

Three of the four "Zhangs" on the Beijing team helped lead the team to victory. Zhang Lin had 19 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Zhang Wei scored 27 points and Zhang Fan scored 18. Zhou Honghua scored 13 points, six rebounds, and six assists.

It would not be a good day for Jennifer Lacy. She shot 2-for-6 and was 1-for-4 from the free throw stripe. She also committed four fouls.

With only seven players playing, four of Jiangsu's players were in double-digits. Xu Song scored 28 points and seven rebounds, and Chen Xiaojia scored 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Wang Xiao-Li would score 10 points and 12 rebounds for a double-double. Ann Strother would score 14 points and four rebounds for Jiangsu.

Only six more games to go in the WCBA regular season....

WCBA 15/2008 - Henan 79, Beijing 69

Beijing (9-6) took a slight step backward on the road to the WCBA playoffs. Going to Henan (8-7), they would lose by a score of 79-69. The loss keeps Beijing solely in fourth place, but Beijing needs to finish in fourth place or better to be assured of home field advantage in the first round of the playoff quarterfinals.

The translated box score of the game is here.

Looking at the quarter by quarter score, it's the story of Henan slowly extending its lead by fits and starts - Henan won each quarter of the game, but by no more than four points each time. They led 41-36 at haltime, expanded the lead to 59-50 in the third quarter and ended up winning by ten points.

The Beijing coach said (I think) that he was happy with his teams performance, because they fought hard. Henan's coach said that his team was only slightly better than Beijing's in some aspects.

The big part of the story is that Henan managed to pull off the win with only seven players, and the mightiest player of all was Yolanda Griffith. Griffith scored 18 points and 18 rebounds - almost a "double of a double". Four other players scored in double digits for Henan, including Wang Jing with 21 points and five rebounds.

Zhang Fan would lead all Beijing players with 22 points and nine rebounds. Jennifer Lacy would score 15 points and three rebounds for Beijing. The only other player to score in double digits for Beijing was Zhang Wei, who scored 13 points and three rebounds.

There probably won't be pictures. You'd think the WCBA would learn to add a multimedia page to their website.

WCBA 14/2008 - Beijing 104, Bayi Telecom 62

If you had told me that Beijing (9-5) could walk right in to Bayi Telecom (10-4), a team around which one could build an argument that they're the best team in China and beat them by over forty points - at Bayi Telecom - I would have laughed in your face.

If so, I would have looked the fool. The final score says it all. Beijing 104, Bayi Telecom 62.

The boxscore is here.

It started out slow. Beijing up by seven at the end of the first quarter. Okay. Bayi just had a bad quarter. Then up by 15, 53-38, at halftime. Big deal. Plenty of time to come back. But Bayi Telecom just kept falling further and further behind, scoring only 24 points in the first half while Beijing scored 51.

What happened to Bayi? Well, Beijing shot 64 percent, compared to 42 percent shooting by Bayi Telecom. Beijing went 11 for 19 in 3-point shooting, killing Bayi Telecom from outside the arc. Even with 26 rebounds, Beijing still outrebounded a dead Bayi Telecom. In every phase of the game, the Beijing team was superior.

Bayi Telecom has now fallen into a tie for second place. Beijing, on the other hand, is in fourth place by a good two games.

Only five of nine players would even score for Bayi Telecom. Chen Nan led all players with 23 points and eight rebounds. Zhang Xiaoni and Wang Fan were the only other Chinese players to even score in double digits, with 12 and 10 points respectively.

For Beijing, five players hit double digits. Zhang Wei set the cout on fire, scoring 20 points and 4 assists on 9 for 13 shooting (she was 9 for 10 inside the arc). Jennifer Lacy picked up 18 points, six of those points on free throw attempts. Zhang Lin had 16 points and five rebounds - she was fouled seven times - and Zhang Fan scored 13 points.

What a win. Although I'm sure Bayi Telecom's fans didn't appreciate it.

Game Results, November 29 2008

Liga Feminina (Spain)

Ros Casares 82, Zaragoza 67. Ros Casares (9-1) continues dominating the Spanish league, with Zaragoza (3-7) the victim. Erika de Souza is still out due to a muscle pull.

Cadi La Seu 58, Extrugasa 53. It's the same old story for Extrugasa (2-8) - almost good enough, but not quite good enough to win. Extrugasa hit 94 percent of their free throws - going 15 for 16 - but this was the only part of the game in which they excelled. Kelly Santos, a forward with the Seattle Storm, scored 17 points and seven rebounds for Cadi La Seu. Scoring duties were split in Extrugasa between Katia da Silva with 14 points and nine rebounds, Mandisa Stevenson with 10 points and five rebounds, and Tamera Young with 10 points. Unfortunately, Young also had five turnovers to go with her 10 points, leading both teams in turnovers. The loss puts Extrugasa at 12th place among the 14 Spanish League teams.

WCBA (China)

Beijing 83, Yunan 69. The win puts Beijing (8-5) all by itself in fourth place in the Chinese League. Four players scored in double figures with Zhang Wei leading the team with 24, but Jennifer Lacy had 10 points...and 16 rebounds. The entire Yunan (4-9) team only had 26 rebounds. The mysterious "Walter Green" (who might be Tangela Smith, as there are only four WNBA players in the Chinese league) scored 17 points and three rebounds. She also drew 12 fouls. Hope she has a nice bath after the game, whoever she is.

Jiangu 88, Shanghai 84. Jiangsu (9-4) hit the road and beat Shanghai (4-9) to move up to third place in the Chinese league. Shooting 54 percent from the field helped. "Jiaolan" led all Shanghai players with 18 points and eight rebounds. Five players scored in double figures for Jiangsu, led by Bian Lan with 19 points and Wang Xiao-Li with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Ann Strother scored eight points and picked up eight rebounds.

Catching Up

We've made it to Texas. I want to at least get some results and boxscores up.

WCBA

Beijing 82, Guangdong 63: Beijing (7-5) hits 70 percent of their two points shots, and holds Guangdong (6-6) to eight points in the third quarter. Jennifer Lacy scored seven points and two rebounds in the win. Chasity Melvin of the Chicago Sky scored 14 points and seven rebounds for Guangdong.

Jiangsu 96, Zhejiang 72: Zhejiang (0-12) remains without a win this year as Jiangsu (8-4) wins easily at home. Ann Strother scored 17 points and five rebounds for Jiangsu, which stays in third place.

Euroleague

Gambrinus 81, Villeneuve d'Ascq 61: All CSKA Moscow games in Group B have been erased as the Moscow superteam has declared bankruptcy. Villeneuve d'Ascq (1-4) gets rid of two losses, but picks up another one against Gambrinus (2-4), which has no trouble with Villeneuve d'Ascq. However, with only five teams in Group B now, Villeneuve d'Ascq merely needs to finish fourth, and it has already beaten last place team Riga once.

For Gambrinus, Hamcheto Maiga-Ba scored 13 points and six rebounds. Tamika Whitmore scored 14 points. For Villeneuve d'Ascq, Iziane Castro Marques scored 11 points and Jolene Anderson scored six points.

WCBA 11/2008 - Beijing 73, Hayao 69

We're at the halfway point of the WCBA season. There are 12 teams in the Chinese League, and each team plays the other twice - once home and once away. Teams play in the second half of the season in the exact same order as they did in the first half.

It looks like in order to make it to the playoffs - eight of the 12 teams go to the postseason - a team will need at least a .500 record. Beijing (6-5) needed to crawl a little further from that questionable margin, and they made it, beating Hayao (6-5) on the road by a score of 73-69.

The translated boxscore of the game is here.

Hayao only put seven players on the floor, and immediately began to fall behind, losing the first quarter 23-15 and going into halftime down 39-33 to visiting Beijing. Hayao managed to close the gap to within three points at the end of the third quarter, 55-52, but Beijing managed to hold off the shorthanded home team and move to one game above .500.

Both teams shot evenly well, each team in the mid-forties. Beijing clearly won rebounding battle with 18 offensive rebounds. Hayao turned the ball over four more times, but they were also sent to the line more frequently. Most likely, rebounding was what gave Beijing the victory.

Liu Jiacen most likely had the best performance of the Hayao players, scoring 19 points and 10 rebounds. Miao Lijie picked up 25 points and four assists, and the only other player in double figures for Hayao was Gao Song, with nine points and six rebounds.

Beijing was able to field an entire team, and to spread the burden of the scoring around to four performers, all starters. Zhang Fan led all players with 17 points and eight rebounds. Jennifer Lacy had 16 points and eight rebounds, but it was a so-so game for her - she was 6-for-16 from the floor and one for two from the line. Zhang Wei would also score 16 points and Zhou Honghua added 10 points and seven rebounds for winning Beijing.

I don't know if pictures will ever be found for many of these games. For now, I'll just try to make sense of it all.

WCBA 10/2008 - Beijing 84, Shanghai 81

It looks like Beijing (5-5) is on the verge of getting the sort of team that they want. They didn't need much help from Jennifer Lacy, taking a 17 point lead into the fourth quarter against visiting Shanghai (4-6). Shanghai attempted a fourth-quarter comeback, but it wasn't enough as Beijing won 89-81 at home.

The boxscore is here.

Both teams came out of the chute raring to go, and at the end of the first quarter the score was 34-27. (If you were playing for the Indiana Fever, that might be the final score.) Beijing took a 53-41 lead into halftime and simply made sure to protect their lead. Extending the lead by five in the third quarter essentially sealed the victory.

It was definitely a high scoring game all around. Beijing shot 56 percent from the field and Shanghai shot 48 percent. Rebounding was essentially even, and so were turnovers. Beijing finally managed to have a good day at the free throw line, shooting 13 for 16.

It was the night of the Zhangs in Beijing, with all players with "Zhang" as part of their name scoring in double digits. Zhang Fan led all scorers on both teams wtih 28 points and four assists. Zhang Wei scored 20 points and Zhang Lin scored 16 points for Beijing. Jennifer Lacy would start for Beijing, and score eight points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes of play. She shot 4 for 10 for the game.

For Shanghai, "Feng Yi was" led all players with 18 points and seven rebound, leading in both scoring and rebounding. Wang Jue scored 15 points and Yang Li added 12 points for the visitors.