TOKYO, July 24 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese 3x3 men's basketball team had a tough beginning of their Tokyo Olympic journey with two losses respectively to Serbia 22-13 and the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) team 21-13, at the Aomi Urban Sports Park in Tokyo on Saturday.
Youthful Chinese team fought bravely against the world's No.1 squad Serbia. Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) star Hu Jinqiu's one point and Yan Peng's 2-pointer gave China a good beginning 3-1. Serbia clawed back quickly but met with China's strong defense as they tied for several times on 3-3, 4-4 and 5-5 before Serbia pulled away with a 4-0 run.
China trailed for the rest of the game. Dusan Bulut, known as "Mr. Bulletproof", tricked his defender with a pass fake and layup to hit a 2-pointer for the win 22-13.
Dusan Bulut led Serbia with game-high 11 points while Aleksandar Ratkov added three points and eight rebounds. Hu Jinqiu scored team-high six points for China and grabbed five rebounds.
Facing ROC, China trailed for most of the time except two ties on 11-11and 12-12. The Russian players then pulled away quickly with two 5-0 runs. Stanislav Sharov ended the game 53 seconds in advance with his only shot in the match.
Alexander Zuev scored a game-high 12 points for the ROC and Hu Jinqiu had a team-high six points and six rebounds for China.
China will face Latvia and the Netherlands on July 25. As an exciting popular urban sport, 3x3 basketball makes its Olympic debut in Tokyo from July 24 to 28. The eight men's teams for the tournament are China, Serbia, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, the Russian Olympic Committee and Japan. Enditem
