The Australian women's basketball team proved it has plenty of firepower without star Lauren Jackson, annihilating a near-full strength China 98-72 in Cairns on Saturday night.
After two tough victories in Logan and Townsville earlier this week the Australians had it all their own way to seal a perfect 3-0 series result.
A 12-point run from the Opals in the second-quarter killed the hopes of the visitors with every player clocking good minutes in a display sure to give head coach Carrie Graf confidence heading into Olympic qualifiers in September.
Abby Bishop (20 points) did the damage in the first half before Suzy Batkovic (19 points) took the game by the scruff of the neck in the second in her trademark brutal fashion.
With the game wrapped up Kristen Veal added the icing with back-to-back triples to help nudge the margin to a game high 30.
Lijie Miao was the game's top scorer with 23 points for the Chinese but her efforts could not stop the all-round Australian dominance.
The Australians matched the physicality of the Chinese women but also showed they had pace too, moving well from defence.
Guards Kristen Veal, Hanna Zavecz and Carly Wilson had the Chinese offence worked out in what was their third clash inside a week, managing to grab regular intercepts despite the presence of giant 207cm centre Wei Wei.
Together they stifled the visitors, going on a 12-point run to set up a lead of 17 at the main break.
The Opals tinkered with their line-up from the outset, injecting bench trio Cayla Francis, Jessica Bibby and Batkovic after five minutes.
They were up to the task and helped the Australians take a five point lead into the second quarter.
Opals top scorer Bishop was reluctant to take credit for the win, saying it was a matter of just doing her bit.
"Someone steps up each game, we all do our job and I think we're happy with where we are at as a group leading into these qualifiers," she said.
Graf paid tribute to her side's stamina and depth.
"I think we wore them down a bit in the end," she said.
"Each of these girls is going to be part of the Opals set up, some will definitely be in that Olympic team but some further down the track and they are all showing that they deserve to be there by how they are performing at the moment."
AAP
Tags: basketball, sport, cairns-4870, qld, australia, china First posted July 30, 2011 21:20:55
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