China’s towering teen basketball ace Zhang Ziyu stars again in Asia Cup build-up
The new ‘moving Great Wall’ scores 18 points in her third senior international appearance against rivals Japan in warm-up match
China look set to unleash their 2.26-metre (7ft 5in) “moving Great Wall” at the Women’s Asia Cup after teenager Zhang Ziyu put in another towering display days after her debut.
The 18-year-old centre scored 18 points as China beat great rivals Japan 101-92 on Wednesday in Xian in a warm-up for the regional tournament next month on home soil.
It was her third appearance for the senior Chinese squad, having helped them to blowout victories over Bosnia and Herzegovina over the weekend.
Chinese state media dubbed her and gangly centre Han Xu the “Twin Towers”.
Zhang’s looming presence on court – footage showed her barely needing to jump to make a basket – seemed to stump Japan head coach Corey Gaines.
Asked if he had figured out a way “to deal” with the teenager, the American ex-NBA guard told reporters: “We’ll just say: Interesting. Very interesting.”