China Beats Australia in Exhibition Basketball GameChina's national team came form 10 points behind in the interval to beat the visiting Australia Stars side 96-87 in their second game of a three matches tour in Taiyuan on Thursday.The tow sides tied 87-87 in their first exhibition game on Wednesday. The Chinese team, preparing for the 21st World University Games which open in Beijing on next Wednesday, jumped to 9-4 ahead in Thursday's game. But the Aussies soon took over the lead 12-11 with two 3-pointers and a jumper from captain Brett Maher. The visitors controlled most of the play before building up a 55-45 lead at the end of the first half. A slam dunking show in the interval inspirited the 5,000 local fans as well as the home team, which came out strongly to a 73-69 lead by beating the visitors with 25-11 run in the third quarter. China changed the lead with the Aussies in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter but guard Guo Shiqiang lifted the home team to 85-82 with a 3-pointer and China gave no chance to their rivals in the rest of the game and captured the win by nine points. Wang Zhizhi, the first Chinese hoopster played in the Mavericks of the National Basketball Association of the United States, hit 28 points for China while Supwell led the Australians with 28. The two teams will travel to Hefei of east China's Anhui Province for their third and last games on Friday. |
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