China bounce back to rout Malaysia at FIBA Asia Championship

Defending champions China bounced back from their Thursday's loss to thrash Malaysia 113-22 in their second Group C match here on Friday at the 27th Asian Men's Basketball Championship.

China suffered a 63-59 defeat against arch-rivals South Korea in their opening match to start their title campaign. But they quickly recovered with a dominant performance against Malaysia. Rookie Wang Zhelin led with a match-high 21 points and eight rebounds.

"I was a little bit nervous yesterday," said Wang. "But I quickly made adjustments. We played a good team today and everyone has a good shape. We played like we were playing against Iran."

"Wang Zhelin is a very good player," said veteran center Wang Zhizhi. "He has the body and the skills and is very potential. I hope he will be a great player to lead China."

China played without former NBA player Yi Jianlian, who's still dealing with a hamstring injury, but four players scored in double figures to power China.

"We want Yi to have some rest for tomorrow's game against Iran," said Chinese coach Panagiotis Giannakis.

Wang Zhizhi, who only played three minutes on Thursday, added 17 and Zhu Fangyu and Guo Ailun both scored 16 points.

The Chinese team, who made 14 three-point attempts but buried none in Thursday match, were 12-of-26 in today's match. Zhu's four three-pointers led the team.

"Our players reacted well from yesterday's loss," said Giannakis.

China raced to a 31-2 first quarter lead and only let Malaysia score three points in the final period. Ooi Ban-Sin led Malaysia with nine points.

It was the second consecutive blowout for Malaysia, who were whitewashed by Iran 115-25 in the opening match of the tournament on Thursday.

China will play against Iran in their final group match on Saturday, who they lost to in the final of 2009 at Tianjin.

"Iran is a good team and we want to stop them," said Giannakis. "We knew the skills of our opponents. They have very good players."

"For tomorrow's game, we will try to be ready to make it a good game and to prepare our game for the future," said Giannakis. "The tournament is long. The team the best performance is going to win. And that's the important thing for me."