XILINHOT (FIBA World Championship for Women) - China head coach Tom Maher has expressed his satisfaction with the evolution of his team ahead of the FIBA World Championship for Women next month after securing a clean sweep against Greece in a three-game exhibition series.

The play-caller watched on intently as his players collected three comprehensive victories against their European visitors to underline the progress made since settling for bronze in Bangkok last year when they relinquished their FIBA Asia Championship for Women title.

"We have improved one hundred percent," insisted Maher.

"Compared to last year's Asian Championship, we have certainly made a lot of progress.

"Although we took the third place and the last one to qualify for the FIBA World Championship, it was a relatively good result for this younger generation.

"And, with so much new blood injected into the team, we can say with certainty that our strength compared to last year is quite different.

"The best thing is that the players have now come to understand my philosophy.

"Another point is that our defence and rebounding performance can still be strengthened.

"While in the case of finding solutions to tactical problems, the players need some further experience in doing this successfully.

"For example, we started poorly defensively (in the third game) and although we continued to score, the players eventually adjusted well enough in their thinking and mentality to tackle the defensive issues."

China posted another eye-catching win in their final meeting against the Greeks, coasting to an 86-67 success in Xilinhot, Inner Mongolia as once again Maher started with Liwei Yang, Wen Lu, Feng Cheng, Song Gao and Hongpin Huang.

Never losing control, China were on top throughout the contest, with FIBA Asia Championship for Women All-Tournament Team member Wen producing an impressive 17 points and Xiaojia Chen coming off the bench to add 15 points and five assists.

China won the first game of the series in Xuanhua, 73-57, with Xiaojia, Ting and Huang all reaching double digits, and followed that up with an 84-65 triumph in Baoding as Ting Shao and Song both combined for 35 points.

At the FIBA World Championship for Women, Maher and his team will face Angola, the USA and Serbia in Group D which will be played in Ankara.

FIBA