China wins third straight against Venezuela in women's basketball warmup

Chinese women's basketball team took away the third straight win against Venezuela in a three-game warmup series after winning at 59-47 here on Sunday.

Eleven Chinese players had points, led by Shao Ting's 14. Teammates Chen Xiaojia and Chen Nan had nine points apiece.

Despite the victory, the Chinese team suffered a total of 27 turnovers, which made head coach Thomas Maher very disappointed.

"I'm very disappointed. We worked really hard, but during this game, our performance is not good enough," he said.

Maher kept Chen Nan and Zhao Zhifang in the starting line-up. Zhao broke the deadlock with a layup, while Roselis Silva made a strong response with four points in a row. China got the upper hand after substitutes went on, as Wu Di and Cheng Feng made their respective contributions in offense. China built a 15-8 lead as the first quarter ran out on a 7-0 run.

Starting small forward Shao Ting had five points in a row, helping the Chinese team extend the margin to double digits. Maher still showed his dissatisfaction in a timeout after his players lost a defensive rebound and Silva hit a jumper. China led by 28-20 into the locker room, while suffering a shocking 17 turnovers in the first half.

Both sides had more body contacts in the second half. Silva got a flagrant foul in guarding against Shao Ting. China got back a double-figure lead on an 8-0 run midway through the third period, and led by as many as 18 points early in the final 12 minutes.

However, the hosts met troubles in shooting then, and gave their opponents many easy baskets from turnovers. Venezuela once cut the deficit to seven, before Chen Xiaojia converted a three-point play and Huang Hongpin had a layup. Silva was disqualified for the game with another flagrant foul. China sealad the win after owning a double-figure advantage with less than one minute to go.

"We are not strong in our mind. We fell apart on the foul line. We fell apart in making errors, and that made the game much tougher," added Maher.

Silva finished with a game-high 15 points. Yosimar Corrales added 10.

"This is our worst performace during the past several games in terms of offense. We had a low shooting percentage, no matter in field goals or three-pointers," commented Venezuela's head coach Oscar Silva.

China and Venezuela, along with Spain, are in Group D of Olympic Qualifying Tournament this June.