China beats Puerto Rico in Olympic women's hoops, puts itself in contention to advance to quarters
China's Li Yueru, right, shoots as Puerto Rico's Tayra Melendez defends during a women's basketball game at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France. Credit: AP/Michael Conroy
VILLENEUVE-D'ASCQ, France — Li Meng scored 18 points and China topped Puerto Rico 80-58 on Saturday in the Olympic women’s basketball tournament to keep its chances alive of reaching the quarterfinals.
Now China will have to wait until Sunday to see if it advances to the elimination round. The top two teams in each group as well as the next best two squads will advance to Paris for the quarterfinals on Wednesday. The tiebreaker to determine the final two slots is point differential. China has a point differential of minus-1 points in its three games.
Spain beat Serbia 70-62 to win Group A.
China (1-2) was up six points after one quarter and 40-29 at the half. It extended its lead to 16 in the third quarter on Li's 3-pointer and Puerto Rico never got within single digits again.
Arella Guirantes led Puerto Rico (0-3) with 20 points.
The loss ended a disappointing Games for Puerto Rico, which remained winless in two Olympic appearances. The Puerto Ricans had good chances to win their first two games before falling by three points to Serbia and one to Spain.
Puerto Rico came into the Olympics after reaching the quarterfinals of the 2022 World Cup.
China's Li Yueru, left, and China's Zhang Ru, right, tie up Puerto Rico's India Pagan during a women's basketball game at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France. Credit: AP/Michael Conroy
Spain 70, Serbia 62
Maria Conde scored 15 points to help Spain clinch the top spot in Group A and finish pool play undefeated.
Spain (3-0) now will wait until Sunday night to see where it will be seeded in the quarterfinals and who it will play. Serbia also advanced to the elimination rounds that start Wednesday in Paris.
Las Vegas Aces star Megan Gustafson, who had carried Spain to its first two victories, had a relatively quiet game against Serbia (2-1). She finished with four points.
Spain was up 29-26 with 2:34 left in the half before closing the opening 20 minutes with an 8-2 run to go up nine at the break. The Spaniards then scored the first 12 points of the second half to take command.
China head coach Zheng Wei gestures during a women's basketball game against Puerto Rico at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2024, in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, France. Credit: AP/Michael Conroy
Serbia didn't score in the third quarter until Sasa Cadjo hit a 3-pointer from the corner with 3:45 left in the period that cut the deficit to 49-31. The team missed its first seven shots after the half before Cadjo's 3.
Spain led by 18 with 4:27 left before Serbia made one last run, getting within 68-62 on Yvonne Anderson's three-point play with 46 seconds left. Mariona Ortiz hit a basket for Spain to end its drought and the Serbians could get no closer.
Anderson led Serbia with 18 points.
