Sunday, August 3, 2008 - Page updated at 03:15 AM

Jackson leads Australia to win over China

Lauren Jackson scored 21 points and Penny Taylor and Suzy Batkovic each added 17 to help Australia beat China 84-70 on Sunday in the FIBA Diamond Ball tournament.

HAINING, China —

Lauren Jackson scored 21 points and Penny Taylor and Suzy Batkovic each added 17 to help Australia beat China 84-70 on Sunday in the FIBA Diamond Ball tournament.

Trailing 23-16 after the first quarter, China scored the first five points of the second period to get within 23-21 on Sui Feifei's 3-pointer. Australia then went on a 22-8 run over the next six minutes to extend the advantage to 45-29 with 2:00 left in the quarter. Jackson had six points during the spurt.

The Opals went into the half up 16 points and China could get no closer than 12 the rest of the game.

Miao Lijie and Chen Xiaoli each had 14 points to lead China, which beat Mali 91-67 in their opening game. Australia will play Mali on Monday before a potential matchup with the United States in the gold medal game Tuesday.

China's coach Tom Maher was the Australian national coach for the 1996 and 2000 Olympics before leaving to coach in the WNBA. He then went on to coach New Zealand's national team in the 2004 Olympics before latching on with China.

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