Beijing Olympic Games

Updated: 2008-07-17

Chinese basketball star Yao Ming, 2.28m Houston Rockets center, plays during the match against Serbia at the Stankovic Cup basketball Olympic warmup tournament in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, July, 17, 2008. Yao’s health for the Beijing Olympics has been of great concern to organizers since he suffered a stress fracture to his left foot in February, ending his NBA season. (Photo credit: Xinhuanet)

(Beijing, July 17) — Yao Ming plays to an ecstatic home crowd in his first game back from foot surgery and China crushes Serbia 96-72 in game one of the Borislav Stankovic Cup, a FIBA series hosted in Hangzhou, in China’s Zhejiang province.

It was clear tonight’s game would go to China from the beginning. Yi Jian Lian, also recently returned from injury,dropped the first bucket off a rebound, and it took almost two minutes for Serbia to even show up on the board and bring the score to 9-2.

A basket off of a big inside move from Serbia’s center Boban Marjanovic got Yao Ming off the bench with 3:58 left in the first quarter. The home crowd was excited for Yao’s entrance into the game but he started off slow, shooting 50% at the free throw line in the quarter.

Chinese basketball star Yao Ming smiles during the match against Serbia at the Stankovic Cup basketball Olympic warmup tournament in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, July, 17, 2008. Yao’s health for the Beijing Olympics has been of great concern to organizers since he suffered a stress fracture to his left foot in February, ending his NBA season. (Photo credit: Xinhuanet)

The crowd really went wild when guard Sun Yue closed the quarter with a deep three pointer. China ended the first quarter the same way it started- with a 9 point lead, 28-19.

Although China remained in the lead throughout the second quarter, they only outscored Serbia by a mere three points. Serbia got its turn to dazzle at the end of the half, when power forward Milan MacVan hit a buzzer beater three, leaving the score going to the break at 39-51.

The third quarter continued to belong to China, yet only a minute and a half in they had already called two timeouts, the second one in response to a big three pointer by Serbian guard Mladen Jeremic.

Chinese basketball star Yao Ming shoots a basket during the match against Serbia at the Stankovic Cup basketball Olympic warmup tournament in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, July, 17, 2008. Yao’s health for the Beijing Olympics has been of great concern to organizers since he suffered a stress fracture to his left foot in February, ending his NBA season. (Photo credit: Xinhuanet)

Later in the third the crowd erupted as Zhu Fangyu got his teammate’s three-pointer rebound and dunked the ball with bravado. Yao Ming and Yi Jian Lian, both on the bench, rose to their feet in excitement as the score turned 59-46.

Although the game was a blowout, the action didn’t let up. With one minute left forward Wang Lei was fouled on a made shot and sank the free throw. It was a fitting end to the game, which went to China 96-72.

The Stankovic Cup is a round-robin tournament with China, Serbia, Russia and Angola,and play runs until July 20th.