Taiwan won both of its matches yesterday during the first day of play in the women's division of the Jones Cup.
Seven teams from six countries will be competing in the seven days of round-robin competition. Taiwan is fielding two teams, which will play against Australia, New Zealand, the US, South Korea and Japan.
Taiwan's A team got the tournament off to a good start, defeating South Korea 68-58 in the early game. Despite making just three of their 14 three-point shots, the team shot 43 percent of its two-point attempts. Li Wan-ting led the team in shooting with 20 points, not missing a single shot in 20:42 minutes of play. She also pulled down 10 rebounds.
Taiwan got off to a fast start in the late game as well, jumping out to a 45-37 lead in the first half. Wen Chi led the team with 11 points, one rebound and one assist. However, it was a combined offensive effort from the entire team that gave Taiwan the advantage, sinking 16 of 30 shots from the field and going 10-13 at the line.
Taiwan needed the strong offensive performance with the taller US squad dominating inside, pulling down 24 rebounds to Taiwan's 13.
Taiwan went into the fourth quarter with a 57-49 lead, which was enough as its stingy defense gave up only 14 points in the quarter. The US narrowed the lead to four with one minute to play, but a crucial missed layup kept the team out of striking distance and Taiwan went on to take the game 70-63.
Taiwan will play two games tomorrow at Hsinjuang Stadium. At 5:30pm the A team will take on New Zealand, followed by the B team at 7:30pm against Japan, who lost 59-120 to Australia in their opener yesterday.
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