Boxscores l Photo Gallery

BRATISLAVA (FIBA U19 World Championships for Women) - China got their FIBA U19 World Championship campaign off to a winning start as they comfortably beat Lithuania 67-48 in Bratislava.

Meiling Zeng was crucial to the victory as she poured in 14 points and 16 rebounds, while Wei Wei also hit a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

The scores could have been much different, however, had it not been for some wasteful shooting from behind the arc.

China made just four of 22 attempts (18.1%) from long range but their opponents were even worse, finding the net just twice from 24 three-point efforts (8.3%).

Statistically the teams were even elsewhere, but China edged it through the sheer volume of their attacks - they had 72 attempted shots from inside the arc.

Lithuania never looked like challenging and were already trailing 21-8 by the end of the first quarter.

That extended to 41-21 by the midway point, and although a 12-4 scoring burst brought them back to within 13 points at the start of the fourth quarter, a low-scoring final 10 minutes saw China ease to victory.

David Broome
FIBA