|
CANBERRA, Sept. 18-- The Chinese women's national basketball team narrowed the gap in their second defeat to Australia in their Canberra training camp, where they gained experience as they prepare for the upcoming FIBA Women's Asian Cup. On Tuesday, China was defeated 87-76 by the Australian national team. It is the second warm-up match between the two sides at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra since Monday after Chinese national team set up a training camp this week. Both teams will use the three warm-up matches planned in a week as intensified preparation for Asian Cup which will be held from September 24th to 29th in India. They will meet again on Thursday night for the last game, which will not be another internal teaching competition but will instead be open to the public. Compared to the Monday's big-margin defeat, China narrowed the gap in the second match and led the world ranked third-place team 25-22 and 44-11 after the first and second quarters. According to head coach Xu Limin, "playing one game [at a time] and getting one step of progress" is his aim at this week's training. "Today's adjustment is very good. The most gratifying thing is that everyone has demonstrated the fighting spirit of the Chinese women's basketball team and is not afraid of the stronger opponent. In this process, everyone has implemented some of the training content and requirements," the head coach told Xinhua after Tuesday's match. | 
