CHN/JOR - China leave nothing to doubt and chance against Jordan

WUHAN, China (26th FIBA Asia Championship): China broke away towards the end of the first quarter, only grew in strength as the game progressed to beat Jordan 93-60 and consolidated their position on top of Group F. Box scores Play by play Yi Jianlian was the catalyst of China’s fifth win in as many games in the competition. “Yi was great in the first half,” said Jordan coach Tab Baldwin. The 212-cm forward struck thrice in a row to provide the lead; Wang Zhizhi and Zhang Bo fired in crispy three-pointers; and Zhu Fangyu came up with a customary drive in the lane – and China had rocked the Jordanian boat with 14-0 run which helped them close the first quarter 25-15 ahead. There was no doubt of China’s superiority thereafter. Yi Jianlian went on to lead the team’s scoring with 16 points, and also had a game-high dozen rebounds. But coach Bob Donewald was more impressed with other Yi – Yi Li’s performance tonight. “I thought Max (Yi Li) was really good today. Especially he helped in keeping Zaid (Abbas) to the perimeter shooting,” Donewald said. Yi Li had 14 points as did Sun Yue. “Sun Yue is playing the best basketball of his career,” Donewald said. “We are taking it one game at a time. And it’s working for us. I think that’s the best approach,” Donewald nipped off any speculative talk of the further opponents. Zaid Abbas an extremely popular player with the China fans after his two years in the CBA – the first one under Donewald at Shanghai Sharks – was Jordan’s highest scorer with 17 points before he fouled out. “Their defense was excellent,” said Abbas. “We were left with nothing to go in,” Baldwin sighed. “We were confined to perimeter shooting.” “And somehow our intensity goes down once our offense fails. Once we fail in offense, we let the game slip easily,” Baldwin said. “We didn’t have size to start with. We just didn’t have enough speed after that,” he added. Indonesia down India to finish 13th Indonesia went ahead early and then consolidated to beat India 84-75 in the 13th place play-off at the Hongshan Gym. Mario Wuysang’s 17 points was the highest for Indonesia, who moved up the rankings from their 15th place finish in the 25th FIBA Asia Championship two years ago. Hareesh Koroth’s game-high 22 points went in vain for India, who fell down a place in the rankings to 14th after having finished 13th in both the 2007 and 2009 FIBA Asia Championship.