China overwhelms New Zealand in 2017 Men's International Basketball Championship

KUNSHAN, China, July 29 (Xinhua)-- Team Blue of the Chinese men's national squad crushed New Zealand 77-53 at the 2017 Kunshan Men's International Basketball Championship here on Saturday.

Guo Ailun and Han Dejun each socored 13 points for China, Zhou Peng finished with 10 points and 4 steals. New Zealand committed a staggering 31 turnovers and none of their players scored in double figures.

"We just concluded our training camp in Australia and New Zealand, and our players are exhausted and some of them have a cold right now. I think we played very well in the match except the 3-pointers shooting," said Du Feng, head coach of the Team Blue.

Han Dejun opened the match with six points in-a-row, helping China lead 22-10 in the first quarter, and heading into the second half with a lead of 15 points.

After New Zealand cut it to six points with a 10-0 run midway through the third, China's Ren Junfei and Zhou Peng stepped forward with their jumpers to put the game away again and New Zealand never recovered from.

China will play against Angola, who beat Lithuania in the late match, on Sunday.