France Ends China's Women's Basketball World Cup Run With a 29-Point Quarterfinal Win
China's women exited the Basketball World Cup 61-90 against a French side ranked above even the United States, ending Han Xu's double-double streak — a quarterfinal defeat that revives debate over coach Gong Luming's rotation and a squad missing Li Yueru.
France ended China's run at the Women's Basketball World Cup on Thursday night, beating the Asian champions 61-90 in the quarterfinal in Germany — a 29-point margin that looks one-sided, and was, but which arrived against an opponent ranked above even the United States.
That detail is the one Chinese basketball fans kept returning to in the aftermath. France entered the knockout stage top of the tournament's power rankings, having displaced the American team that had beaten China by 33 in the group phase. China, meanwhile, arrived at the quarterfinal missing a centerpiece: Li Yueru, the 2.01-meter center who plays professionally abroad, missed the entire tournament after her passport was lost in the mail — a saga the site covered when it unfolded in early September.
Han Xu did her part to keep the quarterfinal close. The 25-year-old center scored 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting and pulled down 9 rebounds in nearly 31 minutes, the best line of any Chinese player — and the game's end also ended her personal streak of a double-double in every World Cup game, a run of four. Guard Yang Shuyu added 19 points with 5 assists, and 2.26-meter teenage center Zhang Ziyu, the most-watched prospect in the squad, contributed 7 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks in a tournament that marked her senior-team debut at a World Cup.
The argument underneath the score
China had recovered from that opening defeat to the United States with wins over Czechia, Italy and Puerto Rico — the Puerto Rico game a one-point escape — and reached the round of eight having half-met its stated goal of "secure sixth, chase fourth." The French loss stopped the chase where it stood, and revived a question that has trailed coach Gong Luming since the opener: whether his rotation choices and tactics got the best from a squad in transition between generations.
The post-game tone on Weibo was more rueful than furious. The basketball commentator @球圈赵探长, whose match post drew more than 120 comments, praised the effort and singled out Han Xu, Yang Shuyu and Luo Xinyu for credit: "The girls worked hard. This tournament wasn't easy — making the quarterfinals counts as getting the job done. The others need to take stock." State outlet Migu Sports tallied the record books: Han Xu's streak of four straight double-doubles had been the backbone of the group stage.
France, now through to a semifinal, went on to what its fans hope is a first world title on home soil in Germany. China will head home having beaten everyone it was supposed to beat, and lost — decisively — to the one team it wasn't. With Han Xu in her prime and Zhang Ziyu still a teenager, the fourth-place finish the coaching staff wanted may be a question for the next cycle rather than this one.