Sun Mengran (C) of China shoots the ball during the preliminary round of women's basketball between China and Canada in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Aug. 6, 2016. China lost with 68:90. (Xinhua/Xu Zijian)
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) -- Canada kicked off their Rio Olympic women's basketball journey with a big win over China, 90-68, at the Youth Arena on Saturday, to set the tone of the tournament.
Tamara Tatham led Canada with 20 points, including a 4-out-of-4 performance from behind the arc, as the whole Canadian team buried 11 three-pointers out of 17 attempts.
"I didn't expect to win 22 points today. I expected a close game," Canada's head coach Lisa Thomaidis said.
Canada beat China 61-53 in the 5-6th playoff of the 2014 World Championships, and won three times against China in warmups at home last month. But Thomaidis was still not convinced. "I think they're better than us."
"I think the reason is our offensive accuracy. We have different players knocking down 3-point shots. We played as we're supposed to, better than China did," Thomaidis added.
Miah-Marie Langlois made three 3-pointers to finish 11 points and the Canadians dominated the board, by 44-31.
Veteran center Chen Nan said, "We are a young team and we were nervous. But this is the price the young players have to pay. We tried to find our rhythm throughout the game, but we couldn't do it."
After a pointless back-and-forth running for both teams, China opened the scoreline with a 3-pointer from Li Shanshan, the only lead for China of the game.
Canada used fast-breaks to take a 19-9 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. They won every quarter and led by as many as 26 points.
Chen Nan led China with 13 points and Chen Xiaojia added 12.
