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China roll past Kazakhstan in mid-autumn night

Xinhua, September 27, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Chinese people welcome a traditional festival, the Mid-autumn Day on Sunday, and China's national basketball team breezed to beat Kazakhstan 75-62 at the FIBA Asia Championship.

It was the fourth straight victory for the Asian basketball giant, who was trying to regain the Aisan champion in Changsha.

China played a balanced game, with nine players scored. Former NBA star Yi Jianlian led the team with 15 points. Li Gen and Ding Yanyuhang took home 12 and 10 points respectively.

China made full use of their size, both offensively and defensively. The 15-time Asian champion collected as many as 36 rebounds in the game, while their opponent only had 28. At the same time, Chinese big men blocked Kazakhstan shots for five times.

"We paid a great attention to today's game, and did a lot of research on Kazakhstan," said Chinese head coach Gong Luming.

"Our guys played a good first half, especially on defense and rebound, but in the second half they didn't do enough against Kazakhstan's zone defense."

China changed the starting lineup, with Li Gen replacing captain Zhou Peng. Li gave China a great start, the strong forward made 12 points, including two three pointers, in China's 16-3 opening run. Kazakhstan got only three points in the first half of the first quarter, but they managed to get 11 in the second. China met scoring drought after six minutes, and the host team finished the first quarter 23-14.

Kazakhstan kept catching up in second quarter. The gap was narrowed down to 24-18 until China moved ahead with a 11-2 run. Jerry Johnson tried hard to help the team by making 11 points and three assists in the first half, but China's big size led to big advantage in the painting area. China closed the first half 42-26 after Zhou Qi completed a three-point play.

China outrebounded Kazakhstan 20-13 in the first half, while Kazakhstan only made eight out of their 30 shooting attempts.

The host team went on to lead at 48-33 after Zhou made a basket. Kazakstan was tough enough to fight back again with a 10-2 run. Yi made two straight dunks, helping China to broaden the deficit to 12 points. Kazakhstan center Alexandr Zhigulin was fouled out with two minutes left, and China took the chance to finish the third quarter 61-45.

With the early exit of Zhigulin, Kazakhstan struggled to find another scoring weapon. China kept a 20-point advantage after Zhao Jiwei making a three pointer, and Kazakhstan was unable to trim the gap to single digit.

"All of us have a desire of victory," said Zhai Xiaochuan.

"We had offensive problems in the second half, so we have to review the game and make our improvement through that."

China will take on Lebanon on Monday. Endi