CHN - China beat Angola to snap seven-game losing streak
GUANGZHOU (FIBA Asia Championship) - China finally snapped their seven-game losing streak at the Stankovic Continental Cup on Tuesday, getting the better of Angola 64-54. The result meant that the Chinese finished third in the second leg of the tournament. They were fourth best in the first leg last week in Haining. Bob Donewald Jr's charges went ...
GUANGZHOU (FIBA Asia Championship) - China finally snapped their seven-game losing streak at the Stankovic Continental Cup on Tuesday, getting the better of Angola 64-54.
The result meant that the Chinese finished third in the second leg of the tournament. They were fourth best in the first leg last week in Haining.
Bob Donewald Jr's charges went ahead 19-9 to end the first quarter and consolidated their position in the second period, pushing their lead to a commanding 40-21 by halftime.
Angola, who are going straight from China to Madagascar for Afrobasket - which gets underway on 15 August - fought back gallantly after the break, but the deficit was too much and China held on.
Yi Jianlian, China’s only remaining NBA player following the retirement of Yao Ming, led all scorers with 22 points and also collected nine rebounds.
Zhang Bo added 11 points while Zhang Peng finished with 10.
China are in preparation mode to host the FIBA Asia Championship, from where the champions will qualify directly for the 2012 London Olympics.
Teams that finish second and third in Wuhan will book their places into the FIBA Olympic Qualifying tournament.
China next move to London for the Olympic Test Event (16-21 August), where they will play against Australia, Great Britain, Croatia, France and Serbia.
FIBA Asia