CHENGDU, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Inner Mongolia thrashed Shanxi 94-69 in a clash of powerhouses to stay unbeaten after three matches in the 2020-21 Women's Chinese Basketball Association (WCBA) season on Thursday.

Inner Mongolia recruited four national team players before the season kicked off, while Shanxi is a three-time winner of the league. Both sides had a perfect record going into the season before Thursday's head-to-head.

Inner Mongolia put on a ferocious 17-2 run midway through the second quarter to set the tone for its win. Li Yueru shot 13 of 17 from the field to contribute 27 points and 20 rebounds for the winner. Li Yueru teammate Yang Liwei finished with 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting.

"We didn't figure out our defense on Li Yueru, and lost too many rebounds, thus making it pretty hard for us to win," said Shanxi coach Li Ge.

With Li Yueru's presence, Inner Mongolia unsurprisingly broke the deadlock from the paint in the first quarter. Her teammate Li Shanshan then connected on two 3-pointers at the end of the quarter to establish Inner Mongolia's 26-18 advantage.

Li Yueru continued her scoring output by finishing two consecutive baskets. Yang Liwei also stepped up to convert two 3-pointers and a three-point play. The national duo combined for 17 points as Inner Mongolia's advantage enlarged to 21 points when the first half ended.

Shanxi was unable to contain Li Yueru's glittering play, thus seeing little hope of a comeback in the second half.

"We made full preparation for this match, and restrained their main attackers quite well," said Inner Mongolia coach Zheng Wei, also emphasizing the role of defense in her side's victory.

"Offense relies on your shooting percentage and varies from day to day, but defense can be better under control than offense," she noted.

Wu Tongtong was Shanxi's leading scorer with 21 points. Yu Dong and Zhao Zhifang added 16 and 13 respectively.

Li Ge admitted the big gap separating the two sides, especially in terms of bench players.

"Our bench players cannot be comparable to theirs, as Inner Mongolia boasts national players on the bench," he commented. Enditem

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