China

China regrets narrow loss to Greece in basketball worlds

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-08-29 16:16

ANKARA - China's national team said Saturday they regretted the narrow loss to Greece in the preliminary rounds of the 2010 FIBA World Championships in the afternoon.

The team had created some advantages during the game but lost the ball too often and could not make use of them, Chinese coach Bob Donewald told reporters after the match, which was concluded with a Greek lead of 89-81.

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"We fought, we battled, we kept it close ... they (the Chinese team) came in with good purpose, good confidence and unfortunately we weren't able to come away with a win that we thought we could get," Donewald said at a press conference.

Washington Wizards forward Yi Jianlian said the team had fought from the beginning to the end, noting that it was a good start for the tournament.

"We played well, but we think we could have done better," he told reporters after the game.

Greece led most of the game on Satuday but was put behind by the rallying Chinese team in the second half before edging to a victory.

"I feel a little bit bad about the game, because we lost the game and its was so close," said China's Sun Yue at the press conference. "But like coach said, we've got to forget about it and prepare for tomorrow's game."

Nikos Zisis of the Greek team said it was their mistake to "let them (China) play with confidence."

"We know that in order to get better and move forward on this world championships, we need to play better," he told reporters.

Greek coach Jonas Kazlauskas said the game result was good for China, noting that two players in the Greek team could not play in the game because of suspension.

Antonis Fotsis and Sofoklis Schortsanitis were suspended by FIBA for taking part in a brawl during an exhibition game against Serbia last week.

China will face Cote d'Ivoire on Sunday while Greece will take on Puerto Rico.