Nine from Kiki
Saki Hayashi air-balled her first two attempts. Then she made nine.
Japan opened the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup this morning in Berlin with a 102-97 win over Mali, and their guard rewrote the tournament record book on the way. Hayashi finished 9 of 15 from beyond the arc for 27 points and took TCL Player of the Game honours. No player had ever made more than eight threes in a World Cup game. Beon Yeon-Ha did it for Korea against France in 2002, Gricel Herrera Mendez for Cuba against Slovakia in 1998. Hayashi went past both.
She was not interested in dwelling on it. “Obviously I am happy but it is just my job to shoot,” she said. “It’s what we have to do to win. In the locker room it is a given that I am going to shoot threes. However, I made nine but I air-balled my first two, so it’s something I have to go back and work on.”
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A team record that had stood since 1994
Japan did not stop at Hayashi. They knocked down 20 three-pointers as a team, past the World Cup mark of 18 they set against Kenya in 1994 and which Australia matched against Mali in 2022. Their own best against Mali, four years ago, was 16.
FIBA logged the result as a comeback. Mali stayed with them the whole way, and conceding 97 points is not a scoreline any coach files away happily, but the volume from distance kept Japan in front when the game turned.
Head coach Corey Gaines had seen it coming. “I have coached in the WNBA, NBA and played in FIBA and Euroleague and I don’t judge a player until I have seen them in practice every day,” he said. “I have seen ‘Kiki’ for many years and I have seen her shoot. She is one of the top shooters I have seen. I would love to see her go against DT. Now that really would be a good match.” DT is Diana Taurasi.
What it sets up
Japan sit in Group A with Spain, Germany and Mali, and those group games run through 7 September. The tournament stays in Berlin until 13 September, 36 games split between the Berlin Arena and the Max-Schmeling-Halle.
A shooting profile like this makes Japan awkward to prepare for and fragile at the same time, because 20 made threes is not something a team orders up on demand. Spain and hosts Germany were watching.
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