Australia’s women’s basketball team has won the Asia Cup for the first time, beating defending champions Japan 88 points to 79 in the final.
The Opals led at every break of the gold medal match in Shenzhen, China, going on to clinch the win, which also qualifies Australia for next year’s World Cup in Germany.
Australia finished undefeated in five games — the Opals defeated Korea 86-73 in the semifinal on Saturday.
China beat Korea 101-66 in the bronze medal game.
Australia led by 9 points at quarter-time, and 11 at the half, before the Japanese team fought back to bring the lead back to 8 points at the final change.
But despite levelling the scores twice in the final quarter, Japan could not hit the front as Australia went one further than the team’s previous best result of silver in 2017.
Coach Paul Goriss praised his team for their performance against a formidable opponent in the six-time champions, Japan.
“Our pace, our execution I, think was one of our better games of the tournament defensively, and you could just see by everybody coming and contributing,” he said.
“So [I’m] really happy and proud of the team for their efforts for this whole week.”
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The Opals spread the scoring load, with Fowler top-scoring with 15, followed by Alex Wilson with 14 and Stephanie Reid with 13.
The Japanese team was led by 21 points from Kokoro Tanaka, and 18 points from Yuki Miyazawa.
Courtney Woods and Cayla George each had five steals, and Wilson also had six rebounds, earning the tournament’s Most Valuable Player honours as she finished the Asia Cup finals with averages of 11.8 points and 7.2 rebounds.
Wilson and Reid were included in the All-Star Five, along with Japan’s Tanaka, Korea’s Park Ji Hyun and China’s Han Xu.
“It’s so fun to be out on the stage and in front of a crowd wearing the Australian jersey,” Alex Fowler said after the final.
“I think we had an amazing group of girls come together, and I couldn’t be more prouder of the group and the coaching staff, it’s been so much fun this whole tournament.”
Australia had another podium finish in the FIBA Women’s Under-19 World Cup in Czechia, where the Gems took silver, losing 88-76 in the final to the United States team, which clinched a fourth straight title.