Japan Women — South Korea Women: 70:75, Asian Games Women

South Korea women defeated Japan 75-70 in their Asian Games encounter on Friday. The visitors held firm against the hosts who had been running riot in the tournament so far. To be fair, Japan had looked untouchable in their previous outings.

By then the hosts had won all three of their games by comfortable margins. Their last match saw them beat Chinese Taipei 80-52, and before that they dismantled Thailand 86-29. The pattern suggested another comfortable night for the home side.

South Korea had not been so dominant. They had edged past Chinese Taipei 73-59 and lost narrowly to China 85-80 in their previous outing. That defeat could have rattled them, but they dug in against Japan instead.

And here's the thing about basketball — one game does not define a tournament. Both teams remain top of the table with identical records after three games. The points difference will come into play when the group stage concludes.

Japan's run of heavy victories is out for the season now. South Korea have the deeper squad and proved it when things came to a head in the closing minutes. This result changes the shape of the group entirely.