The Gems are through to the final of the FIBA U18 Women\u2019s Asia Cup, riding a blistering opening quarter to a 78-59 semi-final win over China.<\/p>\n
Australia did the damage early and held firm as China fought back, with Isabel Smith\u2019s 22 points and a Madison Ryan double-double leading the way.<\/p>\n
Q1: AUS 31 – 9 CHN<\/p>\n
Australia could not have asked for a better start, finding their offensive rhythm early and locking in at the defensive end.<\/p>\n
The Gems poured in 31 points for the quarter while keeping China to single figures, opening up a 22-point lead at the first break.<\/p>\n
Q2: AUS 43 – 28 CHN<\/p>\n
China found their feet in the second, lifting their intensity and making Australia work for every look.<\/p>\n
The Gems were held to 12 points as China took the quarter 19-12, trimming the margin to 15 at the main break.<\/p>\n
Q3: AUS 59 – 46 CHN<\/p>\n
China kept coming in the third, taking the quarter 18-16, but Australia\u2019s work on the glass kept them at arm\u2019s length.<\/p>\n
Jemyma Manyok finished with 16 of the Gems\u2019 52 rebounds, while Olivia Olechnowicz\u2019s 14 points and five assists helped Australia to a 13-point lead at the final change.<\/p>\n
Q4: AUS 78 – 59 CHN<\/p>\n
China cut the margin to 11 midway through the final term, but Isabel Smith answered with four straight points on her way to eight for the quarter.<\/p>\n
Madison Ryan added six late points, completing a double-double of 17 points and 12 rebounds as Australia closed out a 19-point win.<\/p>\n
Australia will meet Japan in the final on Saturday night at 10pm AEDT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Gems are through to the final of the FIBA U18 Women\u2019s Asia Cup, riding a blistering opening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":921961,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44,83],"class_list":["post-921960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=921960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}