NBA guard Patrick Mills scored 20 points and Australia boosted hopes of reaching the medal playoffs by defeating China 81-61 on Thursday in the Olympic men’s basketball tournament. David Andersen added 17 points and Joe Ingles had 11 for the Australians, who improved to 1-2 in preliminary Group B while China fell to 0-3 and will need help from other teams in order to reach the medal playoffs. Wang Shipeng led China with 21 points while NBA standout Yi Jianlian added 13 in a losing cause.
Yi Li hit a jump shot at the buzzer to give China a 22-21 lead after the first quarter but China went cold shooting in the second quarter and the Aussies had runs of 14-6 and 9-0 in rolling to a 49-33 half-time edge. China trimmed the Boomers’ lead to 61-52 entering the fourth quarter, nine points in the quarter from Wang boosting Chinese hopes. But China went scoreless for more than five minutes to start the final period while the Aussies went on a 14-3 run that sealed victory.
