USA/CHN – United States stomp China in Group A

BEIJING (Olympics) – The United States underlined their status as gold medal favourites by blowing out Olympic hosts China in the first quarter on Monday.

Anne Donovan’s side trailed the Group A encounter 11-10 but then scored 23 unanswered points over a span of 5:37 to lead 33-11 by the end of the opening frame and stormed to a 108-63 triumph.

Tina Thompson led the US rampage by scoring a game-high 27 points on 10 of 14 shooting, including two of four from the arc.

China coach Tom Maher marvelled at the way the United States took apart his team.

“They (USA) played beautiful,” Maher said to FIBA.com.

“It was like women on children in the ‘bigs’ department.

“It was overwhelming. They were too good for us. They shot everything. We need unconventional rebounding and they killed us in that area.”

The US overwhelmed the Chinese on the boards, winning that battle 47-30 with veteran Lisa Leslie pulling down a game-high 10.

“We started sluggishly in our last game (against the Czech Republic) and we knew we could not do that against China,” Leslie said.

“It’s their home court and we knew we could not do that again.”

"For us to give them the shakes, we need a lot of things to go well,” Maher said.

“When they start like that and they hit like that, we need a lot of things to go our way to keep in the game.”

For the China fans who may have interpreted their country’s victory over an under-strength USA in the final of the 2008 Beijing Basketball Test Event in April as a sign of things to come, Monday’s mauling will have served as a reality check.

The Americans looked as if a hard night be on the cards for them but then they hit the Chinese with the big first-quarter spurt with Thompson scoring 13.

Any hopes that China might get back into the game disappeared immediately after the restart as the US went on a 14-1 run.

They took a 61-27 lead at half-time and when the USA players returned, they were so relaxed during their warm-ups for the second half that Candace Parker and Sylvia Fowles dunked for the Chinese fans.

China battled in the second half but fell even further behind.

They looked unbeatable, but Australian Maher says there is another team who stands in their way.

"I think the Australians can beat them,” he said. “If you just look at the talent index, then obviously they’ve (Americans) got it.

“But the Australians have a great team and they have great character. They (Australia) have in a few positions arguably the best players in the world."

FIBA