Sept 4 (Reuters) \u2013 The United States opened the FIBA World Cup in Berlin with a 94-61 victory over China on Friday but much of the attention centred on \u200bChina\u2019s 2.2-metre (7-foot-3-inch) centre Zhang Ziyu, whose imposing presence and \u200con-court interactions with the Americans quickly became a social media sensation.<\/p>\n
Zhang, 19, presented a rare challenge even for a U.S. team stocked with elite professional talent. The towering Chinese phenomenon scored 13 points, made nine of 10 free \u200cthrows \u200band registered two blocks as China tried \u2060to counter the Americans\u2019 \u2060pace and perimeter play.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was a different type of basketball game than I\u2019ve probably ever played in my entire life,\u201d U.S. guard Caitlin Clark said. \u201cI\u2019ve never played against a woman of \u200bthat size. She obviously presented some challenges for us, but you\u2019ve got to give our post players a lot of credit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Video \u2060clips and images of Zhang alongside \u2060the U.S. players spread rapidly online, with fans \u200bfocusing on the striking size difference and the logistical puzzle she \u200bcreated around the basket.<\/p>\n
Social media users joked about the difficulty \u200cof defending a player who could catch passes and shoot over most opponents without leaving the floor.<\/p>\n
Zhang\u2019s height forced the Americans to reconsider some of their usual decisions in the lane, where \u2060shots that might ordinarily be routine became high-risk attempts. Their answer was to limit easy entry passes, pressure China\u2019s ball-handlers and use their speed \u2060in transition.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe obviously \u200cpresented some challenges,\u201d added Clark, who made 14 \u2060points and 11 assists. Paige Bueckers also scored \u200b14 \u200cas the U.S. seized control early and pulled \u200baway.<\/p>\n
Clark\u2019s assist \u2060total marked the highest by a\u00a0U.S. player in a Women\u2019s World Cup game since Dawn Staley had 12 in 1998.<\/p>\n
The victory put the U.S. on two points in Group D, tied with Italy who defeated Czech Republic 63-54.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Angelica Medina in Mexico City; editing \u200bby Clare Fallon)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sept 4 (Reuters) \u2013 The United States opened the FIBA World Cup in Berlin with a 94-61 victory…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-836825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}