BEIJING (Olympics) – Yao Ming carried China on his back with 30 points and seven rebounds as the Olympic hosts beat Angola for their first triumph at the Beijing Games.

The Chinese, beaten in their first two games by the United States and world champions Spain, saw Angola fight back from a 16-point deficit to trail by just two at half-time but pulled away in the second half for an 85-68 triumph.

"It feels great, when you win at the Olympics, in front of your home fans it is special,” Yao said to FIBA.com.

"I feel great. We played shoulder to shoulder, hand to hand. We played like a team and we got the win."

No one was as relieved to win as China coach Jonas Kazlauskas.

"I was afraid after our first two games but today, I can be more hopeful,” he said to FIBA.com.

"We started really well, we prepared for this game. But after that, I don't know what happened. We relaxed too much and we thought the game was over."

Kazlauskas tried to remain cool at half-time after the Angolans had fought their way back.

"I reminded my players that we had played against this team before and the first game we lost and the second one we had lots of problems so we cannot relax, these are good teams,” he said.

“They remembered those words and they started to play differently."

Kazlauskas also said that China had been able to hurt the Angolans with Yao.

"Yao had big advantage over our opponents today and that showed,” he said.

China will now take on Germany on Saturday in contest that could decide the fourth and final team from Group B to advance to the quarter-finals.

The Germans suffered their second defeat of the tournament earlier in the day against Spain.

"It's very important game for us and for them,” Kazlauskas said.

“If we win this game, we stay in the top eight so it's crucial."

Angola, meanwhile, have now suffered three defeats after opening the tournament with losses to the Germans and the United States.

The excellent Joaquim Gomes finished with 17 points for Angola.

China did much of their damage at the free throw line, making 22 of 25 (88%) compared to seven of eight (88%) for Angola.

Yao was 10 of 11 (90.9%) at the stripe and 10 of 11 from the floor.

The FIBA Africa champions were out-rebounded China 37-19. Yi Jianlian had 11 rebounds to go with his 10 points.

FIBA