Basketball - Japan beats China to seal their place at Olympics 2016

Japan are celebrating consecutive FIBA Asia Women's Championship titles for the first time ever after tearing past tournament hosts China, 85-50, in Wuhan to climb back to the top of the podium and seal their place at next year's Olympic Games in Rio.Continue reading after the cut

Japan were rampant in the first half as they stormed their way into a commanding 44-22 lead. The extra twist of the knife via a triple in the closing seconds by Sanae Motokawa was hugely important as it really did seem to deflate China heading to the locker rooms. And so it proved, as Japan returned to outscore their opponents 10-2 at the start of the third period.

here were so many to choose from and especially at half-time, when the superiority of Japan had seen them out-perform China 10-0 in fast-break points and also shot a fantastic 61.3 percent at the basket. By the end of the game, Japan had outscored China 41-14 in the paint and it was the latter figure which was most critical and underlined some terrific defense which locked their opponents down.