Nanako Todo, at the center of the communication circle
Mai Yamamoto made six three-point shots.
At the “Mitsui Fudosan Cup 2024 (Tokyo Tournament),” the Japan Women’s National Team overwhelmed the New Zealand Women’s National Team by 68 points, 125-57, in front of a record-high 11,624 spectators. Seven players, led by Mai Yamamoto with 20 points, scored double figures, and the team’s defense forced 35 turnovers to dominate.
They made 25 of 55 three-point shots (45.5%) and had a large lead in fast break points, 27-4, embodying the concept of “a group of shooters who run and win.” They made 2-point shots with a high success rate of 70.4%, but only attempted 27, about half the number of three-point shots. Head coach Toru Onzuka said, “We’re not that concerned about the balance of each.” Regarding offense, he said, “We’ve been performing well since the Australia match by continuing to attack in unison, and I feel like we’re getting into good form.”
When asked about areas for improvement, he said, “I’m more concerned about how we get offensive rebounds after we take a shot and it misses, and the damage that occurs when we’re late in matching up. I want to make those areas my biggest areas of improvement.” There is clearly room for improvement.
Yamamoto, who scored a team-high 20 points, said, “Everyone created openings for me, so I was able to make my shots, but I personally wanted to make some shots that I wanted to make better.” He was not satisfied with the results, saying, “There were some parts where we were able to defend, but there were some parts where we didn’t do well because we adjusted to the other team.” He said that he is still not up to the mark and that Japan must continue to play the basketball they are aiming for for the entire 40 minutes.
Another theme of this match besides defense was communication. Nanako Higashido commented, “There were few noticeable communication errors, but in the first half of the game, we weren’t thorough enough in our defense, even though we were aiming to be the best in the world. We were able to correct that in the second half, but we want to make corrections for the next match so that everyone who plays can play at a high level.” There is room for improvement in the team’s defense.
The players were grateful to have been able to play comfortably in the wonderful atmosphere of the 10,000-seat arena. There are only a few tickets left for the final domestic warm-up match on Saturday, July 6th before the big summer stage where they will challenge for the world championship.
2024-07-04 16:14:00
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