TAIYUAN, China, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Beijing Haidian made it through to the semifinals of the under-18 women's basketball sports schools tournament at China's National Youth Games, though losing 77-58 to Jiangsu Xianlin here on Thursday.
It's the second defeat Beijing suffered so far in group stage following their 68-62 loss to Guangxi on Wednesday.
Throwing all their key players on court, Jiangsu led 8-2 into the game before Beijing answered with a 7-0 run but still finished the first quarter trailing by a four-point margin.
Jiangsu then built a solid defence against Beijing's counter-attacks and fast breaks, leading 38-33 before halftime.
Both sides committed many mistakes during the third period until Jiangsu's Zeng Mengping scored a three-pointer to enlarge her team's advantage to two digits.
Beijing's Zhang Anqi and Xue Han showed their fantastic finishes in the final quarter, but could not help their team narrow down the scoreline gap.
Jiangsu Xianlin had already booked a berth in the semifinal before Thursday's match against Beijing as they collected four straight wins at the group stage.
With the victory, Jiangsu finished atop the group, and Beijing finished the second on game-point differencial to deny the efforts from Guangxi and Anhui Ma'anshan.
In other play on Thursday, Group A leaders Jiangsu Changzhou lost to Hubei Wuti 60-53, sending the Wuhan team into the semifinals.
Hubei Wuti will face Jiangsu Xianlin, while Beijing will take on Changzhou in the other last four encounter scheduled on Friday.
