MANILA, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- China lost to Group B favorites Serbia 105-63 in their 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup opener here on Saturday.

Zhao Rui scored a team-high 17 points for China, and Zhou Qi made all six attempts to add 12. Li Kaier went scoreless from nine attempts, while grabbing four rebounds and dishing out four assists.

All 12 Serbian players had points on the stats, led by 14 apiece from Bogdan Bogdanovic and Vanja Marinkovic.

Zhou took the game's first points with a jumper near the baseline, followed by Zhang Zhenlin's four-point play. However, led by Stefan Jovic and Nikola Milutinov, Serbia soon put China into a tough situation and wrapped up the first quarter with a double-digit advantage.

For the most part of the first half, China's guards had difficulty connecting with Zhou in the paint, while Serbia took their chances to convert steals into points.

With ball rotation stuck, China reinforced their drives but they seemed only to work for starting guard Zhao. Zhou seized a couple of chances to net putbacks and lobs, but Serbia, whose 10 players scored in the first 20 minutes, were unstoppable. The deficit was soon increased to 30 points by the end of the third quarter, after which the game went into garbage time.

Serbia head coach Svetislav Pesic praised his side's defense. "We are a new team and we didn't have enough time. That's the reason to use this game to improve our techniques. Every quarter is important and the third quarter can change destiny."

"New situation for him, his first time to play FIBA basketball [in a] smaller court," Pesic commented on Li Kaier's performance, adding that "he has excellent ball-handling. But he still has to find his rhythm."

China center Wang Zhelin, who scored five points but conceded three turnovers, said the team suffered a lot of pressure from their opponents. "This is our very first game and we suffered from both ends. We will come back with better preparation," he said.

"This is obviously a great game for Serbia, all of them are ready at an exceptional level," said China head coach Aleksandar Djordjevic.

"We prepared ourselves, [which] I believe [is] good, but in the moment when things don't go [well], we had a tendency to put our shoulders down and don't respond right away," said Djordjevic, adding "We just [need to] continue with our fight."

China now face South Sudan on August 28. In an earlier match on Saturday, Puerto Rico nosed out South Sudan 101-96 in overtime. Enditem

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