Chapter 179: Semi-Finals: The Battle of Fate
The United States, Australia, Serbia, and China, who defeated their respective opponents in the quarter-finals, reached the final four!
Ocharulov, a well-known sports media critic in Serbia, commented: "The dark horse component of the Chinese team has been fully tested, and perhaps the Chinese team, which has not been valued by everyone before, is the second strongest team after the United States team in the entire event!" Serbia must be 120% spirited and must not underestimate the enemy! ā
This comment was apparently a response to the comments made by the American sports media the night before, which said: "I really envy the knockout match of the Serbian team, which can play against two Asian teams in a row!" ā
It seems that Serbia's schedule has made the media of the American team in the top half of the table red-eyed. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ļ½ļ½ļ½Uļ½Eć ļ½ļ½ļ½ļ½
Although the Chinese team and the Japanese team performed well in this World Youth Championship, it still seems that they have not won the respect of some basketball powers!
Semi-finals in the first half of the knockout round:
USA (top of Group A) vs Australia (second in Group D)
With the experience of successfully containing Argentina's ace 'Little Demon Knife' Mioro in the last game, the Australian team still hopes to form a defensive net with muscle clubs and tough physical confrontations in this game, trying to limit the play of the American team Josh Jackson.
But this time, the result did not go in the direction that Australia wanted, and it only took less than half a quarter to adapt, and Josh Jackson seemed to have adapted to the strength of the opponent's defense!
In a direct conversation with Neil, Josh Jackson makes Neil experience a terrifying feeling again!
While the Australian team focused on Josh Jackson, the other four members of the American team began to play their own role, allowing the Australian team to start to lose sight of each other, and at the end of the first quarter, the score was 31-15, and the American team had scored more than twice as many as the Australian team!
The U.S. team seems to have really gone all out from the semi-finals!
In the second painful defeat, the Australian team lost to the defending champion United States again after losing to the Chinese team, and left the stage of the World Youth Championship with regret and loss!
110-65, 45 points victory, the Australian team just played a good game, and was once again hit by the all-out American team!
"A real superstar should be able to adapt quickly and play his own style, no matter how well the opponent defends! I believe I'm such a superstar! After the game, Josh Jackson replied haughtily in the face of media interviews.
"What do you think of the Serbian team or the Chinese team that you may face in the final?" A reporter asked.
"It's all the same for us, it's just a stepping stone on our way to winning the championship!" "But if China can beat Serbia, I think it's a very interesting thing!" ā
"So you'd like to play against China?"
"I don't know, I'm just interested in this dark horse, if our American team ends the dark horse winning streak by ourselves, I think our championship will be more sufficient!"
Winner: United States
Semi-finals in the lower half of the knockout round:
Serbia (top of Group B) vs China (top of Group D)
The Chinese team, which has been considered the biggest dark horse of this tournament, ushered in the championship favorite second only to the United States team and the European Youth Championship champion Serbian team.
"This game will be the best stage to test your true strength, if you want to get the opportunity to challenge the strongest team in the world basketball, the United States team, first of all, you must break through the Serbian level, this game, give full play to your real skills!" Before the game, China's head coach Zhang Hong gave a rare boost to China's young players!
"What is our goal?"
"Champion! Champion! Champion! ā
After the start of the game, the Chinese team and the Serbian team did not make any temptations, and directly entered the real confrontation!
Ye Hai and Che Yicheng put their best into the game at the beginning, and the Serbian team still maintained a tight attack and defense under the joint impact of the two.
Under the Chinese team's outside trident Ye Hai, Liaoyuan, and Che Yicheng broke through in turn, the Serbian team's outside players were quickly replaced because of too many defensive fouls, while the Serbian team's center Elseg seemed to have the upper hand on the inside, and faced Rui Zhiwei of the same size in the Chinese team's interior line!
Even under Xu Zhibin's sandwiching defense, Elseg also performed with ease, continuously sending second passes in the bag and assisting his teammates to score!
At the end of the first quarter, the Chinese team trailed the Serbian team by a narrow disadvantage of 29-31.
At the beginning of the second quarter, Rui Zhiwei, who was given by Elsaig in the first quarter, began to exert his might, and the magic of the 'demon pupil center' began to appear, and in the case of different colors of double pupils that seemed to glow with shining light, Rui Zhiwei burst out of the potential in his body and began to score continuously in front of Elseg, and the range outside the three-point line made Elseg very uncomfortable, and the Chinese team took the opportunity to use the combination of inside and outside to overtake the score.
At the end of the second quarter, the score of the two sides was 56-50, and the Chinese team overtook the Serbian team by 6 points and entered the second half with a lead. In the first half, under the obvious fast-paced attack and defense, both sides scored high, but it was also a huge test for the physical strength of both sides!
In the third quarter, the Serbian team started a wave of tactics sacrificed every time they defeated the opponent before, and Elseg, who had different colored eyes like Rui Zhiwei, also began to break out, and the strength of Elseg after the outbreak was especially above Rui Zhiwei!
"Remember? The different colors of the eyes mean that in this corner of the world, there is a fateful battle waiting for you! Ye Hai watched Rui Zhiwei and Ersaige go back and forth on the field, and recalled what Wang Dong said before.
Under the continuous confrontation between the two, the potential of both seems to be constantly improving!
"Rui Zhiwei, this guy, I feel that my strength is about to surpass me and Ye Hai!" Che Yicheng looked at Rui Zhiwei, who was constantly fighting bloody under the stimulation of his opponent, and thought to himself.
The entire third quarter seems to have turned into a duel between the centers of the two teams! Serbia's center Ersaig and China's center Rui Zhiwei both began to burst out with amazing scoring ability on the offensive end, but at the same time, on the defensive end, they were completely unable to contain their opponents!
When Elseg used continuous flexible footwork and feints to shake Rui Zhiwei's defense under the basket and prepare to go to the basket, Ye Hai, who suddenly appeared, slapped Elseg's shot out of the restricted area with one palm!
The whistle at the end of the third quarter also happened to end, 78-73, and the Chinese team still maintained a 5-point lead!
"Ye Hai!" At the end of the third quarter, Rui Zhiwei said beside Ye Hai, "Next time, I don't need your defense, I can handle it!" Believe me! ā
Ye Hai looked at Rui Zhiwei's eyes that seemed to be shining, and nodded solemnly.
At the beginning of the fourth quarter of the decisive battle, the Serbian team, which has scored 30 points, is still a worthy scoring point for the team, and the Serbian team handed the ball to the hands of Elseg on the first offense!
But Elseg's first basket offense was sent out by Rui Zhiwei with a hot pot!
Che Yicheng, who got the ball on the outside, took advantage of the situation to attack quickly, and quickly followed Ye Hai to form a 2v2 situation, Che Yicheng used the rapid change of direction to break through and successfully attracted the defensive attention of the opposing player, followed by an empty pass in the breakthrough process, Ye Hai seemed to have been waiting in the air in advance, caught Che Yicheng's pass, and slammed his hands to complete this rapid counterattack from defense to offense!
Under the stimulation of Elseg, Rui Zhiwei finally broke through the bottleneck of his own potential and took a big step towards the level of Che Yicheng and Ye Hai!
Rui Zhiwei, who burst out with great potential and even surpassed the Serbian center Erseg, who was called 'no upper limit of potential' by the media, when he reached the limit of his potential, his eyes returned to a natural brown!
In the duel with the 'fateful battle', Rui Zhiwei broke through the shackles and won the victory of this 'potential improvement duel'!
And the Chinese team, after Rui Zhiwei successfully contained Elseg, gained the upper hand! Coupled with the firepower of the Chinese team's continuous support on the bench, the Chinese team finally stretched the score to double digits in the fourth quarter!
112-100, the Chinese team had the last laugh with a 12-point advantage! Once again, they beat the European champions Serbia and advanced to the final of the World Youth Championships!
Rui Zhiwei, who played well, got 30 points, 15 rebounds and 4 blocks, and Ersaig also got 34 points, 13 rebounds and 2 blocks, Elsaig dominated almost the first three quarters of the game, but the fourth quarter was Rui Zhiwei's performance! In the duel of the 'Battle of Fate', there is no absolute winner between the two, but Rui Zhiwei's Chinese team won the final victory of the game!
After the game, Ersaig took the initiative to find Rui Zhiwei, and the two players who gave a wonderful center duel in this game cherished each other after the game!
Winner: China
After the semi-finals, the U.S. team and the Chinese team will meet in the final of the World Youth Championships! China's talented generation will challenge the strongest hegemon in the world of basketball - the United States! (To be continued.) )