South Korea was humbled by Japan 81-58 in the semifinals of the Asian Games women's basketball tournament in China on Tuesday, with a duel against North Korea for the bronze medal on the horizon.
South Korea never led once in the blowout loss at Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre Gymnasium in Hangzhou, unable to overcome strong Japanese defense and sloppy play of its own.
The loss set up the second South Korea-North Korea duel of the tournament, this time in the bronze medal contest Thursday. South Korea defeated North Korea 81-62 last Friday in the preliminary round.
South Korea was lucky to be only down 20-15 after the first quarter. South Korea looked flustered against Japan's tight defense early, missing their first three field goal attempts and committing two turnovers before the game was even two minutes old.
Japan bailed out South Korea by missing six of its first seven attempts from deep, though a late three by Aika Hirashita injected some life into Japan.
Japan then opened the second quarter on an 13-0 run, with Saori Miyazaki, Maki Takada and Monica Okoye each draining a three-pointer to blow the game wide open at 33-15. South Korea had four turnovers during that disastrous stretch.
South Korea showed a little bit of life with seven unanswered points, before Japan pushed right back to open up a 38-24 lead.
But South Korea finished the quarter strong with a 9-2 run, with center Park Ji-su's putback off her own miss at the buzzer to keep the deficit to a single digit at 40-33.
South Korea managed just one field goal in the first 5:30 of the third quarter, allowing Japan to go up 50-35. South Korea got as close as 50-40 on an and-1 by guard An He-ji, before Japan pulled away again. Japan took a 56-44 lead into the final quarter, with Miyazaki's deep three padding the lead late in the third.
Japan put the game out of South Korea's reach, with consecutive layups by Takada and Miyazaki making it a 67-49 game with 6:04 left.
A corner three by Hirashita was a dagger that gave Japan a 73-51 lead with 4:16 remaining, and Japan cruised for the easy win.
Center Park Ji-su led South Korea with 18 points on 7-of-16 shooting and nine rebounds. South Korea shot just 3-of-15 from downtown, while Japan went 14-of-32 from deep. South Korea had 14 turnovers, twice as many as Japan. Four different Japanese players scored in double figures.
South Korea won gold in 2014, and the unified Korean team, which featured three North Koreans, grabbed silver behind China in 2018.
Source: Yonhap News Agency