It’s down to the final four teams left here in the women’s basketball tournament of the 2023 Asian Games, with North Korea, South Korea, Japan, and defending champions China left standing.
All of these nations have experience at least getting this far, so it is a tough call on who will win this competition, and the Asian Games 2023 odds seemingly agree.
North Korea will take on China later, and the winner of this game is going to face the winner of the highly anticipated semi-finals contest between Japan and South Korea.
With that said, there’s a big chance that North and South Korea will get their chance to settle their differences on the court anew, despite ironically joining forces to compete in the previous edition of this tournament five years ago.
But first, allow SBOTOP to recap what happened in the Asian Games 2023 results prior to the semi-finals.
North Korea make surprise final four appearance
By making it this far, North Korea are guaranteed to have a top four finish as an independent country for the first time since 1986, when they lost to Japan in the third-place game.
We’re not sure why North and South Korea didn’t send in another unified team this year, especially since it signifies a great development in their reconciliation talks. Nonetheless, seeing the Pyongyang-based side back here is a step in the right direction for them.
Placed in Group C, North Korea went 2-1 to take the second spot. They notched a 91-77 win to start their campaign against Chinese Taipei but lost 81-62 to South Korea.
Stinging from their defeat at the hands of their neighbours, North Korea picked themselves up by whacking Thailand 105-49 in their last group stage contest before routing India 96-57 yesterday in the quarter-finals.
Jin A Pak has been virtually unstoppable for North Korea. She started North Korea’s Asian Games campaign with a 51-point explosion against Chinese Taipei, and she hasn’t scored lower than 29 points in this tournament thus far.
The 6’7” center currently averages 36.3 points and 13.8 rebounds per game while shooting 71-per cent from the field. She is certainly on top of China’s scouting report, although China are uniquely qualified to slow her down.
China show why they’re the defending champions
Speaking of China, they have shown why they’re the defending champions of this competition, both in men’s and women’s.
As expected, they ran roughshod over the competition with a whopping average winning margin of 51.5 points per game in all of their matches prior to the semi-finals.
China’s winning streak began with a 101-46 thrashing of Mongolia, which was followed by a 101-52 victory against Indonesia and a 111-53 blowout of India. Additionally, China defeated Chinese Taipei 104-60 in the Round of 16.
China have beaten their opponents convincingly because of their collective firepower and experience. But if we’re going to pick the standout player in this tournament, it’s going to be Li Yueru, who has posted impressive norms of 23.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game on 66-per cent shooting from the field.
This comes as no surprise because Li Yueru is easily the most gifted player in the squad, as the 24-year-old currently plays center for the Chicago Sky in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the Guangdong Dolphins in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).
Japan and South Korea make for a compelling semi-finals matchup
Just like their women’s football counterparts, Japan’s women’s basketball squad is also in the semi-finals after crushing Hong Kong (118-46), Kazakhstan (92-30), and the Philippines (96-59) in the group stage before eliminating Indonesia 89-47 last night in the quarter-finals.
In their last four games, at least four Japanese players have scored in double digits, but their most consistent player so far has been Aika Hirashita, with averages of 18 points per game on 49-per cent shooting from the field.
Hirashita may only stand at 5’10”, but she can light up the scoreboard on any given night. And she has a bright future ahead of her, as the Toyota Antelopes point guard just turned 21 this year.
Meanwhile, for South Korea, they got this far with wins over Thailand (90-56), North Korea (81-62), and Chinese Taipei (87-59) in the group stage, and the Philippines (93-71) in the quarter-finals.
In all of the games they’ve played here in this competition, Park Ji-Su and Park Ji-Hyun have always scored in double digits. Park Ji-Su is averaging 16.3 points per game on 45-per cent shooting, while Park Ji-Hyun is averaging 13.3 points per game on 43-per cent shooting.
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