China on Wednesday cruised past New Zealand 80-63 in the Beijing Olympics women's basketball tournament, sharing with Spain the second spot after the Americans in Group B.

Chen Nan, a 1.97m center, led all scorers with 26 points in the match, hitting 11 of 14 field goal attempts, and claimed 17 rebounds.

In other preliminary plays on Wednesday, Russia secured its third win by edging out Belarus 75-65 to top the Group A, a place it tied with the Aussies, who beat South Korea 90-62.

The United States thrashed Mali 97-41 to rank first in Group B, prevailing on court with a 51-28 lead at half-time and scoring a 23-0 run in the third quarter of the game.

After Spain hammered the Czech Republic 74-55 for its second victory, Anete Jekabsone-Zogota made the game-winning lay up with 2.7 seconds left to help Latvia beat Brazil 79-78.

New Zealand's forward Jillian Harmon regarded China's Chen Nan as "an awesome player", saying "she finishes really well with her left hand".

China jumped out to a quick 11-6 lead with a 9-0 run and played tough defence to block the Kiwis' shooting.

Chen Nan grabbed an offensive rebound with two seconds to play in the first quarter before scoring two points and earning a free throw which she made to give China a 26-18 lead, which was extended to 48-31 at half-time.

The Kiwis trailed 65-48 in the third quarter, an advantage China stayed on by the end of the game.

"This is the most seriously-prepared game we ever had," said Bian Lan, China's guard.

Tom Maher, the Chinese team coach, acknowledged his "terrible nervous problems before the game".

"That's a team that could beat us," he said. "But we should beat them. We have a lot more talent."

The Chinese women's team, which grabbed a bronze at the Los Angeles Games and a silver at Barcelona 1992, placed only ninth in Athens 2004.

The team sees the Beijing Olympics a chance to deliver a long-awaited comeback with coach Maher predicting a chance for the Chinese to charge into the Games semis.

Russia came out strong in the game against Belarus, keeping its lead in the entire first quarter and stretched its advantage to eight points at half-time and 12 in the third quarter.

"Whether the game is a good show or not isn't important," said Igor Grudin, coach of the Russian team. "The most important thing is that we win. Anything else is minor."

In the Spain vs. the Czech Republic, Anna Montanana topped the Spanish scorers with 20 points, followed by Amaya Valdemoro's 13 and Isabel Sanchez's 10.

"We knew this game for us was very important if we want to go to the next round," Spanish guard Valdemoro said. "We played hard and I think the intensity level was too high for them. I think we did a great job."

The last three minutes in the game between Latvia and Brazil witnessed six leading exchanges before Jekabsone-Zogota, who had 25points, delivered Latvia (2-1) the first win in the tournament.

Source:Xinhua