Han Xu's 22 and 14 Dragged China Through Overtime
China 74 Czechia 70 in OT at Berlin Arena. Han 22 and 14. TCL POTG. China 1-1; Czechia 0-2.
Photo: WNBA.com / New York Liberty. Official league headshot, 1040×760, full head.
China beat Czechia 74-70 in overtime in Berlin.
Han Xu finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds.
Joklová had Czechia up five with 27 seconds left. Luo Xinyu hit a three. Joklová missed two free throws. Yang Shuyu's layup with three seconds left tied it at 64. The last Czech look at the rim stayed short. Then the extra five minutes belonged to the Liberty center who had been cleaning the glass all night.
Berlin Arena. Group D. Quarters went 17-22, 16-19, 15-12, 16-11, then 10-6 in OT for China. FIBA's lead tracker shows Czechia ahead for 33 minutes and 8 seconds. China led for 8:38. Ten lead changes. Three ties. Attendance sat at 5,193. China leaves the night 1-1. Czechia sits 0-2 and faces the United States on Monday with elimination already on the board.
Han played 34 minutes. Nine makes on eighteen tries. Three threes. One free throw. Four assists. Two steals. Fourteen boards, four of them offensive. FIBA tagged her TCL Player of the Game at 26 efficiency. She also turned it over seven times in a China team that coughed it up 25 times against nine Czech turnovers. The win still needed her size on every late possession. Chen Mingling added 10 on 5-of-8 in 20 minutes. Luo finished with 13 on three threes. Yang went 18 points and 5 assists in nearly 40 minutes and closed the overtime scoring.
Czechia earned the long lead. Veronika Voráčková scored 15 with 7 boards and 2 blocks. Eliška Joklová scored 18 with 4 assists and 4 steals. Julie Pospíšilová scored 11. Czechia shot 37 percent from the field. China shot 46 percent and still trailed most of the night because the ball kept leaving Chinese hands. China outscored Czechia 16-11 in the fourth, then 10-6 in overtime after the tying layup forced the extra period.
Zhang Ziyu got 11 minutes and 3 points after her 13-point World Cup debut against the United States on Friday. Six boards. Three turnovers. One block. AP had Yang saying the team has to fix how it plays with the 7-foot-3 teenager. The height on this China roster shows up in every scouting note. The minutes chart still has Han as the post who finished Sunday.
Italy is next on Monday. Lorela Cubaj, Han's former Liberty teammate, will be on the other side. Group D second place is still live. A Czechia loss to the United States would also open a door. China needed Han's 22 and 14 to keep that door from closing on Sunday.
Photo: New York Liberty / WNBA.com. Official team CDN still of Han Xu #21 in WNBA action (not Berlin game tape), landscape 1920×1080, full head. Hosted on cdn.wnba.com. Never stack with the headshot.
Sources
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