LILLE, France, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- Spain beat Serbia 70-62 to finish atop in Group A of the women's basketball at the Paris 2024, while China kept its quarterfinals hopes alive after demolishing Puerto Rico 80-58 here on Saturday.
All the Spanish players on the court had their names on the scoresheet, led by Maria Conde's 15 points, while Yvonne Anderson had the game-high 18 points for Serbia.
Leading by 37-28 to start the second half, Spain used a 12-0 run to extend the lead to 49-28 and stamped the domination of the match.
China finished third with a 1-2 record, and has to wait for the results of the other two groups as the best two third-placed team also advance into the quarterfinals along with the top two teams of the three groups.
Hitting 11 out of 28 from behind the arc, China tried to win as many points as they could to have a better chance to be placed higher in the three third-placed team.
Five Chinese players scored in double figures. Li Meng led the team with 18 points and 7 assists, Li Yueru added 14 points and 7 rebounds, Wang Siyu contributed 13 points, and both Huang Sijing and Han Xu scored 10 points each. For Puerto Rico, Arella Guirantes had 20 points and Brianna Jones added 13 points.
In the men's counterpart, the U.S. won their third match in style, crushing Puerto Rico 104-83 to top Group C, while Serbia saw off South Sudan 96-85.
Puerto Rico, which were seeking for their first win in the tournament, even held a 29-25 lead after the first quarter, but the U.S. easily turned the tide in the second quarter, in which they outscored 39-16.
Anthony Edwards led the Americans with 26 points and six U.S. players scored at least 10 points, while Jose Alvarado had 18 points for Puerto Rico.
South Sudan needed a win to be one of the two best third-placed teams to advance, and they came back every time falling behind to make a one-point game.
The last time South Sudan closed in was 72-71 at the beginning of the fourth quarter, but this time Serbia used a 19-3 run to make it 91-74 with less than three minutes to go.
Serbia finished second with two wins and one loss, while South Sudan were 1-2 and failed to qualify for the knock-out round as Greece and Brazil, also on 1-2 records, advance with better points differences.
Bogdan Bogdanovic buried six 3-pointers in nine attempts to score 30 points and Nikola Jokic added 22 points and 13 rebounds for Serbia. Marial Shayok and Carlik Jones each scored 17 points for South Sudan.
Sunday will witness the last round of the women's basketball group stage and the competitions will take a day off before the top eight teams per gender move to Paris for the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
