Chinese women's basketball squad sent their fans home happy by securing a much expected second spot in Olympics preliminary round Group B after thrashing the Czechs 79-63 on Sunday.
China will next play against Belarus, who placed third in Group A, for a ticket for the semi-finals on Tuesday while the Czechs encounter the Aussies, on top in Group A.
"We should win," said Tom Maher, head coach of the Chinese team. "It'll be an absolute disaster if we lose to them. I'm absolutely confident."
"We've beaten teams that are better than us," he added. "I'm not too worried. If we can beat Spain and the Czechs then we can beat Belarus."
China's guard Miao Lijie led all scorers with 21 points, hitting seven of 10 field goal attempts, and grabbed three rebounds, followed by her teammate Chen Nan with 18 points.
"It is the only thing that we were thinking about to charge forward," said Miao. "We have prepared enough for the result today, either a victory or a loss. We are not the same team as in 2002."
"We will try to get at least better than a fourth position and aim at a medal," she said.
China jumped out to a quick 18-4 lead with a 9-0 run while played tough defence to block the shooting of the Czechs who trailed 24-11 by the first quarter.
Keeping the momentum into the second quarter, China continued the effective defence to force the Czechs into a dismal shooting performance, taking the lead at 41-25 at half-time.
"Their defence was good," said Czech guard Marketa Mokrosova. "And they knew our every action."
"We've never beaten the Czechs," Maher said. "We've played a lot with them in practice games and they've always beaten us."
"Every time we get closer and closer," he added. "This time we were able to find their weakness and exploit it."
As the Czechs still had hard time to find their marks and committed overturns, China prevailed in the second half, stretching the advantage to as many as 22 points and settling at 65-45 by the end of the third quarter before notching up the win in the last one.
The Chinese women's team,which grabbed a bronze at the Los Angeles Games and a silver at Barcelona 1992,placed only ninth in Athens 2004. The team sees the Beijing Olympics a chance to deliver a long-awaited comeback
China vied against the United States,Spain,the Czech Republic, New Zealand and Mali in a round-robin women's preliminary round for a berth in the quarter-finals at the Beijing Games.
Maher had predicted a chance for the Chinese to charge into the Games semis.
Eying qualifying for the semis,they have tried to finish second after the Americans in Group B.
On their upcoming quarterfinal against Belarus, China's guard Bian Lan appeared upbeat.
"We are very confident about our next game," she said. "We have never played against them, but I believe that if we bring out our normal level of playing, and execute the plans set down during our training, we will beat them."
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