China defeats Belarus 84-66 in Women's International Basketball Championship

XILINHOT, China, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Chinese women's basketball team enjoyed a 84-66 victory over Belarus in the opener of 2017 Women's international Basketball Championship here on Saturday.

Shao Ting, who joined the team after the training in WNBA side Minnesota Lynx, started the match with a layup and the following free throw. The host had a 10-4 start before they extend the lead to double digits in the second quarter.

The guest tried to narrow the gap after the halftime while the Chinese players still found hot shooting hands in the fast break. A 20-point advantage was soon established in mid-third quarter before the audiences cheered for the 84-66 victory when the time ran out.

Despite the fact they won the match, team China were asked by coach Xu Limin to train for 30 minutes right after the match.

"I do not care about the scores, what matters most is that whether they played the game tough," said Xu, "We played with some strong teams in Europe, trained for four weeks after that and tonight the players still seemed soft and weak in competing."

In his opinion, the only possible progress the team may make before the Asian Cup in India is their attitude because they don't have enough time to train their skills and tactics.

Shao Ting had a game-high 12 points, five steals and four assists, Sun Mengran contributed 10 points and nine rebounds. Ziuzkova and Lipinskaya led Belarus with 12 points.

China will play against Lithuania on Sunday and Canada on Monday.