Brazil women's basketball team beat China 73-66 in Olympics warmup game

Brazil's women's basketball team warmed up for the upcoming Rio Olympic Games with a 73-66 victory over China here on Wednesday.

The game was played behind closed doors at the Athlete Park of the Games with a few Chinese and Brazilian press watching from the stands. It was more like a training session with only one referee officiating.

The Chinese girls arrived here on Tuesday after completing their week-long training session at Miami, the United States.

"Certainly traveling is hard. Trying to find some hot water and shower yesterday (were) not easy," Chinese head coach Tom Maher said. "I think to play your first game, you've got be confident, to be close to your best. Some of the players didn't play well today. I mean terrible."

China faces Canada, the United States, Senegal, Serbia and Spain in Group B of the preliminary round, which gets underway on August 6.

"People say we are favorites against African teams. That means it's a crucial game against Canada (because) three other teams are harder. We haven't beaten Canada for a few years. The results are against us. But we're closer and closer, and hopeful we can make that step in the first game," Maher added.

China will face Canada in the opener on Saturday. They lost all three matches against Canada in a warmup tour last month.

"Canada are better than us athletically, but we are confident," China's defender Shao Tingting said.

"We know them very well and we know what we've got to do on the court. They didn't intimadate us, though we lost in the warmups. We are ready for every opponent." Endit