On the evening of July 28, Beijing time, the 2024
Paris Olympics
The girls' basketball team tournament kicked off with
China women's basketball team
Meeting tough opponents in the opening game of Group A
Spain Women's Basketball
. After a fierce overtime game, the Chinese team unfortunately failed to win the opening game with 89-90.
At the beginning of the game, the Chinese team quickly entered the state of mind amidst the cheering of the home crowd. Li Yueru took the lead in assisting Sun Mengran to get the first point for China. After that, the Chinese team relied on the inside advantage of continuous scoring, once built up a 10-point lead. At the end of the first quarter, the Chinese team led 22-13.
However, going into the second quarter, China's errors started to increase and Spain seized the opportunity to score 6 points in a row to close the score. Although Huang Sijing and Li Meng hit key shots one after another to help China stabilize its position, China only led 37-33 at the end of the half.
In the third quarter, China once again pulled away from the deficit, but Spain fought back tenaciously, and at the end of the half, China led only 59-53.
The game became extremely tight in the fourth quarter. The Chinese team maintained a slight lead at critical moments, but Spain tied the game with a 5-0 surge at the end of the game, and the game went into overtime.
In overtime, China once relied on Li Yueru's individual ability to take the lead, but the Spanish team once again overtook the score by virtue of their efficient offense. In the end, the Chinese team suffered its first loss in this Olympics with a difference of 1 point.
Li Yueru played well throughout the game, scoring 31 points and grabbing 15 rebounds, but her efforts failed to help her team achieve victory. Li Meng also contributed a double-double with 13 points and 11 assists. Other players such as Sun Mengran, Huang Sijing and Wang Siyu also had a good performance, but the overall high number of errors became the key reason for China's loss.
Despite the loss, the Chinese women's basketball team showed a tenacious fighting spirit and a good technical and tactical level in the game. Next, the Chinese team will face more intense matches, they need to adjust their condition as soon as possible, reduce errors, and strive for good results in the coming matches.
