BEIJING, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese women's basketball squad pleased their fans by securing a much expected runner-up in Olympics preliminary round Group B after thrashing the Czechs 79-63 on Sunday, getting a step closer to their aim on semis.

    China will next play against Belarus, who placed third in Group A, for a ticket for the semi-finals on Tuesday while the Czechs encounter the Aussies, on top in Group A after pummeled Russia 75-55.

    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 head coach Tom Maher predicting a chance to charge into the Games semis.

    The United States cruised past New Zealand 96-60 on Sunday to finish on top in Group B and will meet South Korea in the quarter-finals.

    The South Koreans beat Latvia 72-68 to qualify for the next round and Russia will take on Spain who trounced Mali 79-47.

    China's guard Miao Lijie led all scorers with 21 points in their last preliminary game, hitting seven of 10 field goal attempts, and grabbed three rebounds, followed by her teammate Chen Nan with 18 points.

    "We should win," said Maher. "It'll be an absolute disaster if we lose to them. I'm absolutely confident."

    "We've beaten teams that are better than us," he added. "I'm not too worried. If we can beat Spain and the Czechs then we can beat Belarus."

    "It is the only thing that we were thinking about to charge forward," said Miao. "We have prepared enough for the result today, either a victory or a loss. We are not the same team as in 2002."

    "We will try to get at least better than a fourth position and aim at a medal," she said.

    China jumped out to a quick 18-4 lead with a 9-0 run while played tough defence to block the shooting of the Czechs who trailed 24-11 by the first quarter.

    Keeping the momentum into the second quarter, China continued the effective defence to force the Czechs into a dismal shooting performance, taking the lead at 41-25 at half-time.

    "Their defence was good," said Czech guard Marketa Mokrosova. "And they knew our every action."

    As the Czechs still had hard time to find their marks and committed overturns, China prevailed in the second half, stretching the advantage to as many as 22 points and settling at 65-45 by the end of the third quarter before notching up the win in the last one.

    On their upcoming quarterfinal against Belarus, China's guard Bian Lan appeared upbeat.

    "We are very confident about our next game," she said. "We have never played against them, but I believe that if we bring out our normal level of playing, and execute the plans set down during our training, we will beat them."

    The Aussies on Sunday overcame a dreadful first half to beat Russia, sweeping to the top berth with five victories in Group A, the most coveted position for the quarterfinals.

    "Defensively we wore them down," said Australia's coach Jan Stirling. "We scrambled and we scraped our way and I think our defence bothered the Russians."

    The Russians, who at the 2006 World Championships beat Spain and the United States on the way to losing to Australia in the final, placed second in Group A.

    In another preliminary game, South Korea almost squandered a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter, but hung on to beat Latvia.

    "This is a quite same team as the one at the 2004 Athens Games, but we had better defence this time and I was confident that we would qualify from this group," South Korea's coach Jung Duk-hwa said.

    Earlier on the day, Spain dominated its last preliminary game to beat Mali.