Although it encountered some resistance in the first half and the point difference was forced to close to single digits, the Chinese women's basketball team made a strong effort in the second half, defeating the second opponent of the group stage, Mali, 84-64, to win two consecutive wins while also qualifying for this year's World Cup in advance. Team leader Li Meng played 29 minutes and 49 seconds, scored the second highest 15 points on the team, and delivered 6 assists, she frequently broke the deadlock at key moments and continued the good state of the previous game.
After the End of last year's National Games, Shao Ting did not participate in the Asian Cup held in Jordan with the team, and she did not appear in the league lineup of the WCBA Sichuan Women's Basketball Team last season, so the 33-year-old Shao Ting, even if she did not announce her retirement, has actually withdrawn from the national team.
Therefore, as the Mesozoic generation in the Chinese women's basketball team and a veteran who has played in the national team for many years, Li Meng, who has super personal ability, has naturally become the de facto "first sister" of the Chinese women's basketball team. After all, although the inner line "female shark" Li Yueru also has a strong personal attack, but still too young, there is still a certain lack of experience, and she also needs teammates to feed the ball, so at the critical moment of the game, Li Menglai holds the ball to attack, which is the most certain choice for the Chinese women's basketball team.
More importantly, the "post-Shaoting era" Chinese women's basketball team urgently needs new leaders to stand up, become the spiritual leader of the team, lead the team to impact the good results again at the Paris Olympic Games, and continue to challenge the Japanese women's basketball team, the hegemon of Asian basketball. It is worth mentioning that Li Meng did not participate in last year's Asian Cup because of the military status problem, which is regarded as a major reason for the failure of the Chinese women's basketball team to win the championship.
Therefore, the difficulty of qualifying for the World Preliminary Tournament is not large, after all, the four-in-three format, as well as the strength of Nigeria and Mali, is not enough to pose a threat to the Chinese women's basketball team, but as the new Chinese women's basketball team that participated in the World Series for the first time after the Tokyo Olympic Games, it is of great significance, they want to use these limited three games to complete the technical and tactical run-in as soon as possible, determine the new offensive strengths, and then achieve good results in this year's World Cup.
In the first game against Nigeria, Li Meng's performance did not disappoint, she hit 5 three-pointers in the first half, completely tearing through the opponent's defense line, and cutting a tie for the team's highest 19 points in the whole game. But all this seems easy to do is difficult, one is that Li Meng's knee has been injured, last season's opener she injured her knee, until 10 rounds after the comeback, but not good, this time before going to Belgrade, Li Meng posted a photo of her knee on the personal social platform, looking distressing. The second is that Li Meng used to show the role of an offensive tip, but as a team leader, she also needs to make balls for her teammates, use her own involvement to create opportunities and drive the whole team.
So we see that when the opponents in the second game, Mali, used excellent confrontation and bounce, and frequently took the initiative to create physical contact to bring pressure to Li Meng, "LeBron-Dream" did not blindly attack. For example, at the beginning of the third quarter, Li Meng first knocked the mountain with a three-pointer, and when the Mali team began to push forward, she dealt cards at the top of the arc, pausing slightly to Yang Liwei on the left, and Yang Liwei, who was unguarded, hit three points. After only one round, Yang Liwei passed to Li Meng, who did not pause at the top of the arc, passing the ball back to Huang Sijing, who broke through to the basket and won.
In addition to these two wonderful passes, Li Meng also sent a wonderful pass for Li Yueru, and the combination of the two inside and outside was like two heavy punches that completely knocked the Mali team down. In the whole game, Li Meng gave a total of 6 assists.
Of course, Li Meng's most threatening is still her attack, especially in the face of the tenacious Mali team, the Chinese women's basketball team injured Wang Siyu shortly after the opening, and once fell behind, at this time Li Meng forced a breakthrough with a strong body, carrying the opponent and scoring with his left hand. Mali suddenly launched a ferocious rush in the second quarter, which made the Chinese women's basketball team a little busy, or Li Meng, with 2 minutes and 38 seconds left in the quarter, hard to top the opponent's long arm in the right bottom corner, the negative angle of the three points soared, breaking the scoring drought, very stable.
In the third quarter, the Chinese women's basketball team regained the initiative and pulled the point difference apart, but considering that the last Chinese women's basketball team only scored 11 points in the last quarter, so that the "African Eagles" would chase the point difference closer, so the girls did not relax in the slightest, and the last quarter was still fully committed, Li Meng and his teammates poured their best on the defensive end, and were replaced after two points in the penalty.
The game has no suspense, the main players are all sitting under the field to rest, the camera flashes to the bench of the Chinese women's basketball team, only to see Li Meng and Li Yueru communicating something, she is gradually entering the role of leader.
In the next game, the Chinese women's basketball team will usher in the last and strongest opponent in this World Preliminary Round, the "Gaul Rooster" French team. As the bronze medalist of the Tokyo Olympic Games and the fifth strongest team in the world, france has defeated the Chinese women's basketball team in the last World Cup qualifying, so the French team will be the touchstone of the new Chinese women's basketball team, but no matter who the opponent is, Li Meng will definitely go forward bravely, believing that she is ready.