CHENGDU, China, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Shanghai put on a dominant display, thrashing Fujian 94-59 in the Women's Chinese Basketball Association (WCBA) league here on Wednesday.
Shanghai bounced back from a two-point first quarter deficit to set the tone with two overwhelming quarters, earning their biggest lead of 39 points in the last quarter.
Shanghai guard Ma Yufang shot 9 of 14 from the field and scored a game-high 20 points off the bench. Li Yingyun added 15 points.
Wei Yu-Chun spearheaded the early offense with 10 points in the opening quarter, as Fujian raced ahead 18-16 after 10 minutes of play.
"The beginning of the game was not how I expected it, especially in the first quarter," Shanghai coach Milos Paden admitted.
"We had a lot of mistakes. I'm not satisfied with how we played this game despite winning by 30 or 40 points," he added.
Shanghai began to gain the upper hand in the second period, sparking a 19-2 run that gave them a 15-point advantage and ending up taking a 40-26 lead into the break.
"I just tried to wake up my players to do things that we said we were going to do from the start of the game," Paden recalled.
Fujian's offensive struggle continued back from the locker room, being outscored 31-15 in the third quarter and seeing the gap widened to 30 points heading into the final period, which put the game beyond Fujian's reach.
Wang Qiuyi bagged 18 points for Fujian, who also got 12 from Wei and 10 from Hu Xinyu.
"They put great pressure on us. After the first quarter, they buckled up their defense and pulled away from the us," Fujian coach Gong Songlin commented. Enditem
