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China Sets Margin Records by Beating Thailand 121-46
China Sets Margin Records by Beating Thailand 121-46
South Korea has vowed to beat defending champions China and win the Asian men's basketball championship, but the hosts delivered a message that it would be a tough job.
Hours after South Korea set the record for the most winning points at the 21 Asian Basketball Championship, starting here on Friday, by overwhelming Singapore 124-51 in their group B match, the mark was rewritten by China in its 121-46 victory over group A opponent Thailand.
Before the taller and stronger China, Thailand managed 10, 13, 6 and 17 points respectively in the four quarters and the total was only two more than the Chinese scored in the first quarter. In the totally one side match, over 3,000 Shanghai crowd were encouraging their towering centers Wang Zhizhi and Yao Ming to make slam dunks and counting whether China could win by a larger gap than South Korea did in the afternoon.
"I am satisfied with the result," said the Chinese head coach Wang Fei after the game. "Nevertheless, we should reckon with every other opponent on our way to the championship."
All of the 12 Chinese players played and everyone of them scored more than one point. Shooting guard Li Nan led with 18 points, Wang had 17 points and 7 rebounds and Yao added 16 points with game-high 17 rebounds.
No Thai scored more than nine points.
China will play Qatar, who downed China's Hong Kong 72-42 on Friday, in its second group match of the first round on Saturday.
The Asian Basketball Championship runs through July 28 with the top two finishers here making their berths for the World Basketball Championships in the United States next year.
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