On the afternoon of June 30, the third window period of the Asian Region of the 2023 Men’s Basketball World Cup Qualifiers began, and the Chinese team faced the Australian team. Trailing by up to 16 points, the Chinese team once tied the score, but was widened in the final stage. In the end, the Chinese team lost to the Australian team 69-76, suffering its first defeat in this world preliminaries. The scores in the fourth quarter are: 15-17, 19-26, 21-14, 14-19 (China team is in front).
Game progress
After the game started, the Australian team scored a three-pointer first, Zhou Qi responded with a hook. The opponent scored another 2 points, Zhou Qi hit a tip-in, Zhao Rui, Guo Ailun COSCO made consecutive shots, and the Chinese team went ahead 9-5. After that, the opponent responded with a 6-0 wave, and Zhou Qi gave the opponent a big shot. Next, the two sides exchanged three-pointers. As Sun Minghui hit a long shot at the buzzer, at the end of the first quarter, the Chinese team fell behind by 2 points 15-17.
Entering the second quarter, Hu Mingxuan succeeded in a mid-range shot, and the opponent opened a 6-point gap with consecutive free throws. Gu Quan hit a three-pointer. Afterwards, although the Chinese team had Zhou Qi's dunk, Australia's three-pointers from outside were raining down. A 9-2 offensive made the Chinese team fall behind by 13 points. Zhou Qi made a tough one-on-one foul and made two free throws, and then dunked in the second attack. Gu Quan hit a three-pointer at the buzzer. After halftime, the Chinese team trailed the Australian team 34-43.
After changing sides and fighting again, Australia scored 5 points in a row to reach 14 points. Sun Minghui stopped the bleeding with a three-pointer, and the opponent used long shots to re-expand the advantage. After a long stalemate, Wang Zhelin succeeded in a throw to break the scoring drought. Xu Jie , Shen Zijie made consecutive free throws to chase points, and Guo Ailun made a jumper to catch up to single digit points. Dellavedova scored a three-pointer, Hu Mingxuan, Wang Zhelin, and Zhou Qi successively made contributions, and the point difference was reduced to 5 points. With Gu Quan hitting a three-pointer at the buzzer, at the end of the third quarter, the Chinese team was only 2 points behind 55-57.
In the last quarter, Zhou Qi scored from the basket and Wang Zhelin scored 2+1 to tie the game at 62. After Florin's dunk, Guo Ailun equalized again with a jumper. The opponent succeeded in another long shot, and the Chinese team fell behind by 5 points. After the timeout, Guo Ailun made a layup to chase the point. The opponent fouled on a long shot and made 2 of 3 free throws. Xu Jie hit a three-pointer and caught up to 4 points, but the opponent responded with a three-pointer. In the end, the Chinese team failed to reverse the situation and lost to the Australian team 69-76.
Both sides started
China: Zhao Jiwei, Guo Ailun, Hu Mingxuan, Shen Zijie, Zhou Qi
Australia: Meck, Dellavedova, McDowell-White, Blatchfield, JT-White
