RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- European champions Serbia used a strong run in the third quarter to defeat China 80-72 for their first win in the Group B of the women's basketball tournament at Rio Olympics on Friday.
Serbia (1-3) will face winless Senegal while China (1-3) play the unbeaten United States in the last round of the pool play on August 14.
Serbia, which lost to China 85-69 in 2014 World Championships, built up a 24-14 lead in the first quarter, thanks to Ana Dabovic's 11 points during that period, but China scored the first six points in the second quarter and fought back with a 17-6 run to lead 31-30.
Things changed abruptly when both teams came back from break as Serbia scored eight straight points for 14 points without an answer banking the two halves. China called two consecutive time-outs in vain, only witnessing Serbia to pull away as far as 25 points by 66-41.
Serbia won the third quarter 26-9 to lead 66-43 and the match was virtually over before the start of the fourth quarter.
Dabovic led Serbia with 23 points and Sonja Petrovic adding 20 points and eight rebounds. Sun Mengran led China with 16 points.
The United States snatched their fourth win of the tournament, beating Canada 81-51 to top the group.
This was the first time the U.S. did not score 100 points in a match, but the Americans still managed a 40.3-point winning margin averagely.
Canada, second in the group, hung on in the first quarter when they trailed only 18-16, but were held to only six points in the second in the defence-minded match when the U.S. led 36-22 after 20 minutes.
Spain had not trouble to trounce Senegal 97-43 in the last match of the day.
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