Not even another dominant performance from Zhang Ziyu could lead China to a gold medal at the FIBA U18 Women’s Asia Cup. The 17-year-old (!!) is the tallest female basketball player of all-time at 7-foot-3 and might as well be a cheat code on the hardwood.
However, her Chinese teammates could not provide her with enough support to topple the Aussies.
Zhang is one inch taller than the tallest player in WNBA history. Margo Dydek, from Poland, was the No. 1 overall pick in 1998 and played 11 years in the league at 7-foot-2. She was drafted at age 24.
Zhang is seven years younger and spent the last week(ish) playing against other young women under the age of 18. Her height advantage over other Asian countries was/is staggering.
Here is how she fared against Japan:
Here is how it looked when China played Korea:
Even taller countries like New Zealand didn’t have an answer!
Zhang made her national team debut against Indonesia and immediately proved to be the most dominant player on the court. It wasn’t even fair.
Zhang Ziyu is unstoppable!
That trend of pure dominance continued throughout the week as China played its way into the U18 Asia Cup championship. Zhang dropped 34 points with 16 rebounds and five assists in the semi-finals.
And that wasn’t even her best performance!
Zhang scored 44 points against Japan. It set the competition single-game record in scoring.
That was one day after dropping 36 on New Zealand.
If that wasn’t impressive enough, Zhang finished with 42 and 14 in the Final against Australia. The Aussie side still proved to be too much. China lost 96-79 to finish with a silver medal.
Even though the team result was a dissapointment, Zhang was named as the tournament MVP on Sunday. She casually averaged 35 points and 12.8 rebounds per game throughout the tournament!
There is a lot of career ahead of Zhang Ziyu at only 17. Most players of her height, male or female, struggle with movement and spacing. Although she still plenty of room for improvement, that does not seem to be an issue. Put the WNBA on notice because China’s 7-foot-3 women’s basketball phenom is on her way to becoming a real force on the professional level.