MELBOURNE, Australia, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Australia's women's basketball team rewarded their home crowd here on Friday night with a second consecutive victory against higher-ranked China, etching an impressive 91-63 mark on the scoreboard.

Australia's 26-year-old guard Amy Atwell shone with a team-high 17 points for her 15 minutes and six seconds of play, while 43-year-old Lauren Jackson put on a solid show, achieving 13 points and six free throws, with Zitina Aokuso, Marianna Tolo and Steph Reid also scoring in double digits.

A game-high 18 points were registered under the name of China's 28-year-old guard Wang Siyu, who previously led all players on both sides with 21 points during Wednesday's first-round warm-up clash.

Joining Wang in the starting five, power forward Huang Sijing contributed 11 points and nine rebounds with a versatile scoring performance both inside and outside the arc.

Australia flexed their muscles in the starting minutes of the game, with Tolo, Darcee Garbin and Isobel Borlase combining to turbocharge their team into an early 10-2 lead. Facing a defensively obstinate and offensively proactive Australia, China ended the first quarter 25-15 behind.

Turnovers and personal fouls proved to be nagging issues for China in the first half, while Australia accumulated 21 points from 25 free throw attempts. As the match progressed to the break, Australia widened their winning margin to 21 points, with the score locking in at 51-30.

The third period saw the Opals fail to display their arsenal of three-pointers, but further maintain their dominance by capitalizing on free throws and points in the paint.

China made a comeback by tallying 18 points in the last ten minutes, matching their opponents' score in the final quarter, but they had no time to make up the remaining 28-point deficit.

Australia earned 48 free throws throughout Friday's match, converting 39 of them, while China was restrained by a greater number of turnovers and personal fouls than their sturdy rivals.

Previously, China had been outperformed by Australia 94-66 in their first round of pre-Olympic warm-up matches at John Cain Arena on Wednesday. Enditem

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