BEIRUT, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- China swept Syria 90-59 in their FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifying game on Sunday.
The game was hosted in Lebanon because of the security situation in Syria and the Chinese team, who had arrived from Jordan a day earlier, managed to see out the game with an easy win.
"For us, it is a game to show what we have practiced and that we are doing and playing better," Syria coach Veselin Matic said following the game. He stressed that the Chinese team was tired from the trip and played a tough game against Jordan on last Friday. "They showed that these young players have a lot of potential and deserved to win the game".
"We are a team that has been put together not long ago with new members and we are progressing game by game," Syrian player Tofek Saleh said. "We hope that in the future we will be better, we are building a team and including young players. We hope to be better in the future."
China's team leader Fang Shuo said: "In these international games we need to learn how to avoid a slow start, and I think the Syrian team has played very well and there is a lot we have to learn to get better in the future."
China coach Li Nan said that the team did not play well during the first quarter. "During the second quarter, we increased our defensive intensity and we caught up. We did better in transition and we were leading by 16 points in the first half. In the second half, we kept the defense in hand."
He added that "everybody was playing well", pointing that there were nine new players among the 12, "so it is a young new team and we going to get better."
