China coach keen on D’Tigress sweep

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China coach Gong Luming is targeting a clean sweep of Nigeria’s D’Tigress in their pre-World Cup exhibition series after Wang Siyu’s four free throws in the closing seconds helped the hosts rally from an eight-point deficit to beat Nigeria 69-65 in Haikou on Sunday, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

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The result, in the second of three warm-up games between both teams ahead of next month’s FIBA Women’s World Cup in Berlin, means D’Tigress have now lost both of their meetings with China, having also fallen 70-67 in their first exhibition game on Friday.

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Tang Ziting sank China’s first three-pointer of the contest early in the final period before drilling another effort from beyond the arc to level the score at 54-54, with centre Zhang Ziyu attacking relentlessly in the paint before Wang’s late free throws sealed victory for the home side.

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Tang finished with nine points, while the 19-year-old Zhang led all scorers with a double-double of 23 points and 13 rebounds, having been held to just six points in the first half after scoring 24 in Friday’s encounter.

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Nigeria relied on physical defence to stay in contention through a fiercely contested first half that featured 11 lead changes, with the score level at 33-33 at the break.

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The African champions hit five three-pointers in the third quarter to take a 54-46 lead into the final period, while China committed 19 turnovers, five more than Nigeria, in a game that remained close until the closing stages.

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Speaking after the win, Gong said facing a physical Nigerian side offered his young team valuable experience ahead of the World Cup.

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“As seven of their players competed at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, it was a good test for our young team,” he said.

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“We need to build chemistry and draw experience from these games. We need to connect well against such a high-pressure defence. Compared with the first game, we improved our rebounding today, but our turnovers were still high. We hope to improve that in the next game.”

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The China leg forms part of D’Tigress’ five-stop “Road to Berlin” preparation programme, which began with games in the United States from July 29 to August 2 before the squad flew to Haikou.

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Both sides will meet for a third and final time in Foshan on Wednesday, after which Nigeria will move its training camp to Tenerife, Spain, for further preparation matches against the hosts and Belgium from August 15 to 24. The team will then travel to Zaragoza for games against Mali and Puerto Rico from August 25 to September 3.

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D’Tigress will then head to Berlin for the FIBA Women’s World Cup, scheduled for September 4 to 13, where they have been drawn in Group B alongside South Korea, Hungary and France.

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