China’s coach praises Zhou Qi’s contributions to win over Kazakhstan

Du Feng, head coach of the Chinese language males’s nationwide basketball group, praised Zhou Qi’s key contributions to the group’s 68-56 win over Kazakhstan within the FIBA Basketball World Cup Asian qualifier recreation on Thursday.

“Zhou Qi has been rising all these years within the nationwide group,” Du stated. “He tailored to bodily contact significantly better after enjoying for a 12 months in Australia. His enhancements offered the nationwide franchise loads of assist on each offense and protection.”

Zhou scored a double-double of 19 factors and 11 rebounds in a low rating recreation on Thursday. When the entire group delivered as few as six assists, he exploited his dimension benefit to earn 18 free throws and made 11 of them. The three blocks Zhou had was additionally vital for defensive sake.

China managed to ascertain a 17-point lead (41-24) after the primary half, however suffered a 14-0 blow within the third quarter. The group dedicated a complete of 21 turnovers in Thursday’s recreation, permitting too many simple factors through quick breaks by Kazakhstan.

“We had a very good first half during which we led by 17 factors,” Du stated. “We did nicely in containing the opponents’ key participant and launching offense usually. However we failed to take care of our defensive depth within the second half. The opponents grew extra bodily on this finish, which induced us loads of turnovers.”

As China’s beginning back-court pair, Solar Minghui and Guo Ailun mixed to shoot 6-for-19 in subject objectives. Neither the 2 do a certified orchestrating job with solely two assists however 9 turnovers.

Du defended his gamers after the sport. “The group spent two and a half months on summer time coaching camp, enjoying warm-up video games and being quarantined,” he stated. “Our gamers have journey lots away from residence. I understand how troublesome it’s. Hopefully, this victory will carry them extra power.”

China are presently third in Group F, behind Australia and Kazakhstan, forward of Iran, Japan and Bahrain. Each Australia and Iran beat their opponents on Thursday. With one of the best document and certain one of the best squad on paper, the Boomers are more likely to qualify for the World as chief of this group. Japan are already certified as one of many hosts for the match.

That leaves two berths for China, Kazakhstan, Iran and Bahrain to compete for. The victory over Kazakhstan makes a very good begin for the Chinese language nationwide group.