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Spain trails, in overtime prevails



Yao Ming (R) of China goes up for a shoot.




(BEIJING, August 12) -- China stunned Spain with leads as big as 15 points, but ultimately the world champion Spanish Men's Basketball team prevailed in overtime, 85-75, in an exciting group B preliminary match on Tuesday, August 12.
World No. 3 Spain's Pau Gasol was the game high-scorer, netting 29 points and grabbing eight rebounds. His teammate Rudy Fernandez contributed 21 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
China had four players finishing in double digits, including Liu Wei with 19 points, Zhu Fangyu and Wang Zhizhi with 15 points, and Yao Ming with 11 points.
The first half saw the two teams' scores neck-and-neck, reaching 11-10 midway through the first quarter and ending the whole ten minutes with Spain leading 20-18. China did a stunning job in the second quarter, gaining 28 points while Spain scored only 17. China made four three-pointers in this period, with forward Zhu contributing two of them, and Spain was left behind 46-37 at halftime.
China kept in good form in the third quarter, gaining 15 points, five more than the Spanish team. Wang Zhizhi, who came onto the court halfway in this quarter, put away a quick seven points in four minutes.
The fourth quarter, however, saw an increasingly tired China fail to meet a big push from Spain, who grabbed 25 points while China could only net 11. The shooting percentage of the Chinese players decreased sharply in this period,which spelled disaster as Spain jacked up their score. A two-pointer by Wang Zhizhi helped China to pull ahead to one final lead, 72-70, but with only one minute to go Spain was able to equalize the score and propel the game into overtime.
The crowd was behind them in a big way, but China's players could not maintain their performance and energy in the extra five minutes of overtime. On an attempted block against Spain's biggest weapon of the night, Pau Gasol, Yao got called for his fifth personal foul and had to leave the game early. A match that was filled with excitement came to a less than spectacular end, with Spain dominating the overtime and taking the game 85-75.

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