China crush Bahrain in Yi's return
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E-mail Xinhua, August 7, 2013
Defending champions China bounced back from its awful 1-2 record in preliminary stage to win all three matches in the second stage after their dominant 88-66 win over Bahrain on Wednesday at the 27th Asian Men's Basketball Championship.
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Zhou Peng (R) of China vies against Mohamed Kawaid of Bahrain during the second round match of the 27th FIBA Asia Championship in Pasay City, the Philippines, Aug. 7, 2013. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali) |
After missing previous four matches, China's top player Yi Jianlian was back on court and took seven of his 12 points in the first quarter, in which China only conceded five points to Bahrain.
Yi didn't play in the second half but still took a second team-high 12 points, along with six rebounds.
"My injury is still hauling me but I feel good tonight," said the former NBA center. "Tomorrow will be an important day for the team to prepare for the knockout stage. The most important games are coming soon."
China enlarged the lead to 22 by halftime. Bahrain were able to bring down China's lead to 14 points, but two free throws from Chen Jianghua and a last minute tip-in from Wang Zhelin bumped the lead back up to 18 at 61-43 entering the final period.
Hussein Altawash scored back-to-back jumpers for Bahrain to cut the lead down to 16 but Wang Zhizhi and Chen Jianghua's triples secured China's big win.
Chen Jianghua led six Chinese players scoring in double-digits with 13 points. Guo Ailun, Wang Zhelin and Wang Zhizhi all contributed 11 points apiece. Zhou Peng added 10.
Altawash and Subah Azzam led Bahrain with 13 points respectively. Azzam also dished out a match-high five assists.
"We started the game like kids, like we were afraid of China," said Bahrain head coach Sasa Nikitovic. "But we found solutions on offense. My guys kept their character."
"It was a good practice for us," said Panagiotis Giannakis, head coach of Chinese team. "Now comes the real tournament. We will be ready now and we'll have everybody healthy for the next games."
China are most likely to play against Chinese Taipei in Friday's quarterfinals, against whom the defending champions kept an unbeaten record.
"We'll try to keep the record," said Giannakis. "It's difficult because it is a new game. We are ready to play a difficult game."
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