China beat Angola to open Stankovic Cup
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China trounced defending champion Angola 89-62 on Friday, the first day of the 5th FIBA Stankovic Basketball Continental Cup for Men, in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province.
Center Wang Zhizhi poured in a co-game high 17 points and grabbed 6 rebounds for China, who lost to Iran 52-70 last week in the final of the Asian Championships in Tianjin.
Wang Lei scored all his 12 points in the first half, including 3 3-pointers, and Li Xiaoxu added 11.
"I am satisfied with the performance of my players and they were good tonight," said Chinese head coach Guo Shiqiang. "We were good at the defense as well as the rebounds."
Pualo Barros led Angola in scoring with 17 points and his teammate Robert Fortes tipped in 15.
Exchanging three times ties and leads, China took the lead 10-9on Li Xiaoxu's lay-up in the first quarter and never relinquished it.
It was 49-37 when China finished the opening half. Wang Lei scored 12 points and Wang Zhizhi added 11 in the first two quarters.
The host extended the lead to 29 points, 75-46 after the third quarter and went on with an 11-3 spurt to turn the lead into 37 points, the biggest margin in the game with 4 minutes to play in the final quarter.
China outshot Angola 57 percent to 33.2 percent and out rebounded them 45-35.
Australia defeated Turkey 70-54 early Friday. Four Australian starters scored double digits with guard Matthew Dellavedova 13, Jams Harvey and Oscar Forman 12 apiece and Aj Ogilvy 10.
Sonkol Umit was the only one who contributed double figure with11 points for Turkey, the host to the 2010 World Men's Basketball Championships.
Both teams played without their NBA and top players and were second-string ones in their countries.
The Australians looked easy to finish the game after a 27-9 first quarter. But the Turkish side made a 23-7 second quarter and took the lead 40-38 with 6 minutes remaining in the third period before the Australians bounced with an 11-0 run.
Scoring only two points from each team in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter, Australia pulled away with another big spurt on the way to the victory.
Four teams are playing in the annual event which was inaugurated in 2005 and lasts four days.
(Xinhua News Agency August 29, 2009)
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