BEIJING (Olympics) – China led from start to finish and beat the Czech Republic 79-63 to seal a second-place finish in Group B of the Beijing Games and set up a quarter-final against Belarus.

Miao Lijie scored 21 points and Chen Nan 18 for the Olympic hosts, who led by as many as 24 in the game.

“It feels wonderful,” China coach Tom Maher said.

“We’ve never beaten the Czechs. We’ve played against them a lot in practice games and they’ve always beaten us, but every time we get closer and closer.

“This time, we were able to find their weakness and exploit it.”

Miao had 10 points and Chen nine in the first quarter when the Chinese outscored the Czechs 24-11.

Jan Bobrovsky’s team reduced the deficit to 28-18 midway through the second quarter but Liu Dan added five straight points for China, including a three-ball, to go in front by 15.

Twice the Czech Republic pulled to within 11 in the third quarter but China stayed comfortably ahead and cruised to victory.

The Chinese were 28 of 57 from the field, including 24 of 47 (51%) inside the arc compared to the Czechs’ 35% (16 of 46) from two-point range.

The Europeans were five of 19 (26%) from long range.

Bian Lan had a terrific game for China with 14 points and a game-high nine rebounds.

Michala Hartigova scored 15 points to lead the Czech Republic, who finished fourth in Group B with two wins and three defeats.

They reached the quarter-finals, but will now have to take on world champions Australia in the quarter-finals.

As for China’s next game, Maher said: “We’ve beaten teams that are better than us.

“I’m not too worried. If we can beat Spain and the Czechs, then we can beat Belarus.

“It will be an absolute disaster if we lose to them. I’m absolutely confident we should win.”

FIBA