CHN - Maher reaping the rewards of European tour

PANEVEZYS (FIBA World Championship for Women) - China play-caller Tom Maher has expressed satisfaction with his team's tour of Europe which has formed a significant chunk of preparations for the FIBA World Championship for Women later this year.

The veteran Australian has overseen an extensive and gruelling schedule of games which have proved invaluable in handing his young players yet more international experience ahead of their return to the continent in September.

China signed off a double-header against Lithuania with an 85-81 success thanks to a stunning shooting display from Tingting Shao, who was a superb six of seven from the floor en-route to 15 points.

And, having not played for the national team since the 2008 Olympics during Maher's first spell, she may well have played herself back into contention.

The exciting Wen Lu was the other top performer with 16 points, while Meng Li had a stellar 20 points in less than 20 minutes during the first game with their opponents, although it wasn't enough to prevent a 95-88 loss.

Maher wasn't too concerned with being edged out by the hosts in one of the games and knows his team will have to tighten up moving forward.

"It was a six out of 10 for us, but we're not an eight out of 10 team yet," claimed the play-caller.

"But what we do have, is a lot of potential.

"We definitely made a lot of bad mistakes in defense, although part of that was them shooting the ball well.

"Still, our defense wasn't good enough."

As part of their tour, China also played at the Castel San Pietro Terme tournament in Italy, where they were beaten 72-69 in a hard fought clash with Israel, claimed a convincing 73-51 triumph against the Netherlands and lost 82-72 against the host country.

"It's good to come to Europe as you always get professional teams," added Maher.

"They are always well organised and present well.

"All teams we have played have been good and play good basketball.

"Our next hurdle is to try and get good ourselves."

He continued: "We need to work on our game and learn the lessons that these games teach us.

"And by pointing things out on tapes of these games, it is a lot easier for the players to understand."

Maher has freely admitted China are still very much in a transitional phase and his young team have work to do in the build-up to Turkey 2014 (27 September-5 October), where they will tussle with Angola, Serbia and the USA in Istanbul's Group D.

FIBA