LILLE, France, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Chinese women's basketball team was defeated by Serbia 81-59 on Wednesday, suffering their second consecutive loss at the Paris Olympics.
Serbia had eliminated China in the quarterfinals with a 77-70 win at Tokyo 2020.
"We faced many challenges during training this year, including injuries and incomplete team attendance. We only had the full team together a week before the Olympics began, which hindered our ability to go far," said China's Huang Sijing.
"It wasn't that our opponents played exceptionally well, but rather our overall performance was lackluster. We focused on studying their characteristics and tried hard to limit them, but we were overly fatigued on defense," Huang added.
China's key player Li Meng underlined Serbia's aggressive defense in the game as a "big challenge."
"Serbia targeted me heavily, double or triple-teaming me whenever I got the ball. Their physical defense was a big challenge, and I'm gradually adapting to it," said Li Meng, who scored 10 points throughout the game.
"I expect our team to fight until the end. I think they tried but some of their defense was off. We used that, and definitely it was not their best day today," said Tina Krajisnik of Serbia.
China's three-point shooting was poor, making only 8 out of 34 attempts (24 percent), while Serbia made 7 of 11 (64 percent). Inside the paint, China scored only 16 points, far away from Serbia's 44.
China's Han Xu and Wang Siyu each scored 11 points, and Li Yueru had eight points. Yvonne Anderson scored 15 points, Masa Jankovic had 13 points, and Tina Krajisnik had 12 points and 11 rebounds for Serbia.
China trailed 23-17 in the first quarter before embarking on a 6-0 run, with Li Yueru tying the game at 27-27 with 5:41 left. Serbia ended the half with an 8-2 run to lead 45-39, before extending that lead to double digits in the third quarter, as China struggled with three-point shooting.
Serbia continued to set pace in the fourth period, and despite Huang's three-pointer with 4:56 left, China failed to score again in the rest of the game and had to settle with a decisive loss.
