Australia enters Diamond Ball with a bang

Photo Gallery>>(BEIJING, July 30) -- Australia defeated China 67-55 in their first game of the FIBA Diamond Ball for Men on July 30, in Nanjing, China.

Coming off a win over Angola, China failed to challenge their Australian opponents in this Olympic warm-up. In practice the day before the game, Australia's coach Brian Goorjian said his team was not anticipating China's moves as much as they were looking to improve their own performance as a cohesive unit.

"We're focusing totally on us," Goorjian said. "We've had two hours [training] today and we've got two hours this afternoon and we haven't mentioned Yao's name or China."

Although Australia was not overly worried about handling Houston Rockets' center Yao Ming, he was still the day's high scorer, with 14 two-pointers and seven rebounds. Li Nan came in next with 11 points, tied with Australia's Chris Anstey, who also grabbed four rebounds as well.

China's Yi Jianlian, China's other NBA superstar who was recently traded to the New Jersey Nets, surprisingly contributed very little in the game, playing 24 minutes and making three fouls without scoring a single point, though he did grab four rebounds.

Australia opened strong, leading 20-16 at the end of the first quarter. Australia's offense outpaced China early on, although at one point China led 13-12.

In the second quarter, Australia reached a 10 point advantage which they were able to hold all the way to the break. Their biggest scoring run reached eight points, and they went to the half 38-28.

Australia managed to keep the gap of 10 points through the third quarter, ending 55-45, with China once trailing 15 points.

The fourth quarter opened with a turnover apiece for Australia and China, with the first two points made by forward Nan in the paint. Even though China managed to come within six points in this final quarter, Australian was never threatened and won the game 67-55.

The FIBA Diamond Ball began on July 29 and finals will be played on August 1.