China

China men's basketball beat Argentina under new coach

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-06-21 09:45

QINGDAO - China's men's basketball team beat Argentina 82-61 in a warm-up match in Qingdao on Sunday, the first game China played under their new American coach Robert Donewald.

China led the match in all four quarters after Argentina's Alejandro Alloatti sank the opening point from a free throw in the very beginning of the game.

China' s Liu Wei snatched a game-high 18 points and four assists, while his teammates Sun Yue and Wang Shipeng pocketed 15 and 11 points respectively. Nicolas Romano of the Argentina side got a team-high 11 points.

China grabbed a 19-12 lead in the first quarter after a 8-0 run.

With one three-pointer from Liu Wei and two three-pointers from Sun Yue, China continued to extend their lead to 16 points in the mid of the second quarter. Argentina launched a fightback to narrow the gap to six points before the half time whistle.

Liu Wei added another seven points with one three-pointer and two two-pointers in the beginning of the second half and made China's lead to more than 10 points again.

With more and more turnovers from Argentina's players in the last quarter, China clinched their victory with a 21-point margine.

"There are some moments that are very good and there are some moments that are not very good in this game, but overall it's a good step and I can't express my proud with words for my players," said Robert Donewald, coach of China' s team.

"But this is just a lesson for us and we know there are a lot to learn and improve, we will watch the film after the warm-up matches. The real test is in Turkey's world champion," he said.

"Our cooperation didn't go very well but every one of us is trying the best, and we will work on it," said Sun Yue.

Argentina's team was just set up and only had nine training lessons in half a month. "My players are young and have a lot of turnovers, especially in the last quarter, we need to improve in the upcoming game," said Nicolas Casalanguida, coach of Argentina's team.

"We were always under defense and defense, and it was really a hard game. This is probably because we are tired after a long journey and I believe we will do better in the next match," said Jonatan Treise, Argentina's guard.

China will have another warm-up match with Argentina in Dongying city, a coastal city of east China's Shandong Province on Monday.

The warm-up match series were arranged for the build up of the Chinese team for the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey this August.