by sportswriter Qi Zijian

    BEIJING, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- China's Chen Nan poured in 26 points on Wednesday as her team cruised past New Zealand 80-63 in the Beijing Olympics women's basketball tournament.

    Chen Nan, a 1.97m center, led all scorers in the match, hitting 11 of 14 field goal attempts, and claimed 17 rebounds.

    New Zealand's forward Jillian Harmon regarded Chen Nan as "an awesome player", saying "she finishes really well with her left hand".

    China jumped out to a quick 11-6 lead with a 9-0 run and played tough defence to block the Kiwis' shooting.

    Chen Nan grabbed an offensive rebound with two seconds to play in the first quarter before scoring two points and earning a free throw which she made to give China a 26-18 lead, which was extended to 48-31 at half-time.

    "The beginning was better than the second half," said China's forward Sui Feifei. "After we took a big lead, we did not play well."

    The Kiwis fought back in a very fierce third quarter, making three inside paint two-points before dropping in another on fast break but missed two three-pointers in a row, trailing 65-48, an advantage China stayed by the end of the game.

    "This is the most seriously-prepared game we ever had,"said Bian Lan, China's guard.

    "Our cooperation on strategy should be smoother," she added. "And if we can keep doing well on rebounding like today, we can win (in upcoming matches)."

    Tom Maher, the Chinese team coach, acknowledged his "terrible nervous problems before the game". "That's a team that could beat us," he said. "But we should beat them. We have a lot more talent."

    The Chinese women's team, which grabbed a bronze at the Los Angeles Games and a silver at Barcelona 1992, placed only ninth in Athens 2004.

    The team sees the Beijing Olympics a chance to deliver a long-awaited comeback with coach Maher predicting a chance for the Chinese to charge into the Games semis.

    Eying qualifying for the semis, they try to finish second after the Americans in the preliminary round Group B.

    The New Zealand 'Tall Ferns' have competed at the Olympic Games twice before, in 2000 in Sydney and in 2004 in Athens.

    China will encounter Mali on Friday when New Zealand will take on the Czech Republic.