China loses to Angola at Basketball Friendly

Source: Xinhua| 2017-08-02 22:47:53|Editor: huaxia
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CHENGDU, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A bad start and the even worse last five minutes cost Team Red of Chinese men's basketball national team the victory as they lost to Angola 70-78 here on Wednesday at the 2017 Chengdu International Basketball Championship.

The Angolan team, who already beat Team Blue 73-65 on last Sunday, took advantage of a 16-2 run in five minutes in the first quarter. The visiting team made in five three-pointers in that period while Zhao Rui scored China's first until 12 seconds to the end of the quarter.

Zhao Rui, who scored 15 of his team-high 18 points in the first half, combined for 15 in the second quarter with Wang Zirui, which helped the host to cut Angola's lead to nine by halftime.

Adbusalam scored 10 points to lift China in the third quarter. China outscored Angola 20-13 in that period. But in the final minutes of the match, Chinese players became short of energy, which gave Angola chance to seize the game.

Zhao Rui led China with 18 while Abdusalam added 17. Wang Zirui and Meng Duo took 11 and 10 apiece. China grabbed only 24 rebounds, 11 less than the Angola team did.

"We played a real bad start, trailing at 2-16. I think the starting five were not ready for the match at all," said Li Nan, head coach of the Team Red. "I asked my players to focus on the match but they lost their concentration. In the end of the match, our players were tired. We had our chance but we failed to take it."

Carlos Morais led Angola with a match-high 21 while Yanick Moreira finished with a double-double of 14 and 10 rebounds.

China will play against New Zealand on Thursday while Angola takes on Lithuania.

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