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NANTES, FRANCE, June 17 (Xinhua) -- China beat Belarus 84-70 to secure one of the five tickets to Rio Olympics here on Friday in the third quarterfinals at the 2016 FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
Trailing 16-14 after the opening quarter, China's Shao Ting came up strong in the second period to change the course of the game for the Chinese who went to the locker room leading 32-28.
Anastasiya Verameyenka got into foul trouble in the third quarter, leading head coach Anatoli Buyalski to take her out of the game. In the meantime, three-pointers by Sun Mengran and Chen Xiaojia saw the Chinese extend their lead to 44-32 and never looked back, going up by as many as 23 points.
Lindsey Harding, who finished with a game-high 22 points, helped the Belarusian to cut China's lead to only nine in the last minute of the game. But finally the Chinese team seized the victory. Shao Ting led China with 18 while veteran Chen Nan added 15 and seven rebounds.
Yelena Leuchanka added 19 and game-high nine rebounds for Belarus. Enditem
