China loses in basketball friendly

The Chinese men's basketball team suffers a 64-72 loss in a friendly match against the Australian United team here on Sunday.

China, who won Friday's opener 57-49 in the three-stop Sino-Australian Men's International Basketball series, was outscored 0-15 in the final two minutes and failed to seize the victory.

The host trailed by 11 points after the first three quarters. Li Muhao and Zhou Peng led China's fighting-back in the final period. Li scored ten of his 14 points while captain Zhou scored five in the last quarter.

China outscored the visiting team 25-7 in eight minutes to build a seven-point lead but failed to hold the advantage to the end of the match.

The Aussies scored seven points in seven seconds to tie the score. Zhou Peng and Zou Yuchen took two deadly turnovers, which wasted China's winning chance.

Zhou Peng led China with 18 points and five steals. Zou continued his surprising performance by adding 16. But the Chinese players made in only two three-pointers from seven attempts.

"We are a team of many young players,"said Gong Luming, China's head coach. "The opponents gave us lots of pressure in both offence and defence. It's a pity to lose the match but I think we learned a lot from tonight's match."

Jesse Wagstaff led the Australian team with a match-high 22.

The final stop will be played in Beijing on May 10. Endit