14/08/2004
Day 1 Women: CNH 71 - KOR 54

China runs away from Korea after close start 

In what is considered the eternal rivalry in women's basketball the Chinese team was able to win its opening match against South Korea with 71 - 54.
 
The Chinese team which is considered to be strong medal contender got a big boost by it's center Chen Nan who scored 17 points and got considerable help from Miao Lijie with 16 points. Sui Feifei contributed 13 points for the winners, who led by as many as 20 points on two separate occasions. 

Korea was not able to with stand the strong team play and defense of the Chinese team, their best scorers were Beon Yeon-Ha with 19 points and Park Jung Eun with 12 points. Korea made its final effort to come back and fight for the win midway through the last period, but it could not get closer than 13 points. 

One of the main factors in China's win was its huge rebounding advantage (39-18).
 
We would like to inform all followers on fiba.com that due to the problems of the Athens 2004 results services we were not able to provide live stream from that game. We hope that the service will be up again soon and hope for your understanding. 
 

Flash quotes:

 
PAN Wei (CHN), guard:
 
On her team performance:
“We are not satisfied at all with our game. We were very nervous since it was the first one. However, we are stronger than Korea and that’s why we defeat them easily.”
 
On the following games of the tournament:
“We are going to be more competitive in the next games.  We feel very comfortable in Greece.  That is very positive for our performance during the next days.”
 
PARK Jung Eun (KOR), forward:
 
On her team performance:
“We are very disappointed. We didn’t expect this margin. I hope to recover and play better in the following games.” 

Game card...
 
Source: Athens News Service