Fiba 3x3 basketball: Hong Kong women savour facing top sides in Olympic qualifiers
- City’s women’s team start with two losses but their star player Li Tsz-kwan says it’s valuable experience
- Hong Kong’s challenge is to work at the short version of the game, Li says – ‘how do we develop specific tactics and training plans?’
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Home fans erupted into cheers when Hong Kong’s representative teams took the court at Victoria Park on Friday night.
Playing on the opening day of the Fiba 3x3 Universality Olympic Qualifying Tournament, Hong Kong’s women’s team twice put up a courageous fight before falling to defeats by Hungary and Egypt.
Facing the Hungarians, the top seeds, Hong Kong’s Women’s Chinese Basketball Association player Li Tsz-kwan scored the first point from the free throw line, but that was as good as it got.
Powered by Beatrice Mompremier’s five points, and four more from Klaudia Papp, the visitors responded strongly and built a lead. They went on to win 21-7.
“Their world ranking is obviously much higher than ours, and they had massive 3x3 experience,” Tong Hiu-lui, who lead the hosts with four points, said.
“But we tried our best in terms of our preparation.”
The 28-year-old felt her side had done “much better” offensively and defensively after playing together at the Asia Cup in Singapore last month, but certain disparities were too much to overcome.
“Physicality is one thing,” she said. “Mompremier, their tallest player [at 1.93 metres], is a former WNBA player. We need to disturb their passing lane or stop her getting under the basket.
“But they outclassed us technically and defensively. We did all we could.”
Hong Kong made improvements in their second outing against the Egyptians, keeping themselves in the game until the final two minutes, but the No 5 seeds ended with a 6-1 run to prevail 19-12.
Li, the key player for Hong Kong, reflected on the opportunity to play in an international tournament as hosts.
“I am really happy to play against these teams, because we don’t have such chances at the Asia Cup,” she said.
The Tianjian Guanlan guard said the challenge was to work at the short version of the game.
“It’s not just the players – how do we develop specific tactics and training plans for 3x3, to match teams in a pacy game?”
In the final match of the day, the city’s men lost 21-10 to Austria. They will face the Netherlands and Switzerland on Saturday, while the women will play their final group match against Poland.
