ACOG - News - IBM

(23 July 1996; Day 04)

Upsets in Women's Basketball Set Up Thursday "War"

In the words of Canadian women's basketball coach Diane NORMAN, there will be a war on Thursday night in Atlanta at the 1996 Olympic Games. The war will be between the teams from Canada and China after each medal favorite suffered losses in their first two games in Group A.

With only four of the six teams in Group A advancing to the medal round, a third loss for either team would probably end any hopes of moving on to the next round.

"We are in a tough situation," said Coach NORMAN (CAN), whose team lost to Brazil, 69-56, on Sunday and then Italy, 59-54, on Tuesday. "We should have won the game against Italy. China has also lost two games. Both of our teams shouldn't be in this position, but now we both have to win. It is going to be a war when we play on Thursday."

China, which lost to 1996 Olympic surprise Italy on Sunday, 62-53, and Japan, 75-72, on Tuesday, will continue to rely on the strong inside play of 6'9" center ZHENG Haixai. After scoring only 8 points and posting 5 rebounds against Italy, ZHENG tallied 31 points and grabbed 16 boards against the shorter team from Japan. Japan, after watching ZHENG score 21 points in the first half, collapsed three players on her during the second half to hold the Chinese star to 10 points.

Canada will have to be aware of ZHENG if they hope to advance to the medal round. The Canadians have three starters who are 6'0", and the only taller centers on the squad are 6'2" Camilla THOMPSON and 6'5" Martina JERANT. The main problem with the two taller players is they have combined for only 2:50 of play through the first two games.

Another threat for China has been the play of guard LI Xin, who is averaging 14.0 points and 5.0 assists through the team's first two games.

Canada's main offensive threats are forward Beverly SMITH and guard Shawna MOLCAK. SMITH leads the team, averaging 10.5 points and 7.0 rebounds, while MOLCAK is averaging 10.0 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.

This is an official publication of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Sports Publications Department. Written by Wayne White.


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