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23 - 29
July 2017
14 Marianna TOLO (Australia)
25/07/2017
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Tolo relishes playing Asian style basketball

BENGALURU (FIBA Women's Asia Cup 2017) - This is Marianna Tolo's first foray into Asian basketball, and though she's played just one game, she looks to make a big impact at the Women's Asia Cup.

Tolo was instrumental in the Opals' opening day win over East Asia power Korea, putting up 5 points and 3 rebounds in just 10 minutes of play. She sat out the Aussies' second game against Division A debutants Philippines, but the Opals didn't need her anyway as they won by a mile and a half.

They will, however, need the 1.95m center's presence and production in the coming contests, where Australia will face much tougher opposition and where the stakes will be much higher.

Tolo is aware of how important she is to Australia's chances of winning the Women's Asia Cup, and how as a team they need to continue being focused on that primary goal. She acknowledges that they are still adjusting to the unique Asian style of play, but she is also relishing in this opportunity to play a different brand of basketball.

She discussed these recently with FIBA.basketball.

After two games in the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup - how do you feel about joining FIBA Asia?
Being far from every other country, it is a good opportunity for us to play against different countries and especially that the Asian style of basketball is quite different from both Europe and the U.S. as well.

How did your team prepare for the Asian style of play?
We knew coming in that the Asian style is basically very quick, so we are running around a lot, setting a lot of screens, flare action and hand offs. We practice those in our training sessions. We had our training camp in the States, which was a really good camp and helped us take advantage of what we can bring against Asian teams in terms of our size and abilities.

Do you think that size will be an advantage for the Opals against China and Japan?
They have some big bodies. We have a couple of bigger girls that were supposed to come in, but they ended up hurting themselves and could not come. We will strangely be undersized against these teams, but we will still attack them and use our speed against the bigger players.

Your coach decided to rest you today and rest you for tomorrow’s game. What can you tell the fans about your injury and rest you for tomorrow’s game?
I felt calf tightness after training sessions on the concrete. My body is not used to doing that, so I felt sore after the conditioning. We are just being smart, and I think for the next game I will be ready to go and hopefully for the rest of the tournament as well.

The match against Japan is branded as an early Final. What are your expectations?
They are tough opponents. We played them in the Olympics, and somehow we managed to to pull out a win, which I did not think we were going to from where we were standing. They have an amazing ability to put the ball on the floor, but they also can shoot really well, which makes it quite hard to guard. If you over commit to help, they can pass out to shooters, but we will be ready to adjust to that style of play. I guess we have to attack their bigs as well.

Which players impressed you after two days of competition?
There are quite a few. Watching Japan play yesterday – they have a couple of their shooters - and even their bigs can shoot - that always makes it hard to defend. Yoshida and #15 the backup point guard, and China has some quality players a couple of their point guards that really can give really nice passes. It is good to watch.

Your head coach could not join you to the tournament because she is coaching in the WNBA. Does this put the team at a disadvantage?
Not really. I have faith in our assistant coaches, and they are good quality coaches. They are working together to help us. They know Sandy’s style, and what she brings. We are not at a disadvantage.

FIBA