Olympic women's basketball: China, France, Russia and US into quarterfinals

 LONDON, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- China, France, Russia and the United States all seized their third consecutive¹ group match win, advancing into the quarterfinals of the women's basketball tournament here on Wednesday at London Olympics.

Ma Zengyu and Chen Nan each scored 15 points to help China top the Group A after a 76-52 win over Angola. China led by two at the half and outscored the African champions 24-6 in the third quarter to blow the game open.

It is China's first time to play Angola in a match of world-stage tournament. Every player of the Chinese team scored and two of them finished reaching double figures. Ji Yanyan, leading scorer of China's WCBA League, made her Olympic debut² in this quarter and finished with six points after seven minutes.

China, which finished fourth in the Beijing 2008, will play against Turkey on Friday before they face the United States, which they have never beat at the Olympics.

France was the first team to reach the quarterfinals. Emilie Gomis scored 16 points and Isabelle Yacoubou added 14, leading the 2009 European champions to a 64-60 victory over Canada.

Canada missed all 11 of the three-pointers it attempted in the tough loss but still got the chance of advancing to the quarterfinals, basically³ rest on Friday's game against their Americas rival⁴ Brazil.

Braizl lost to Beijing Games runner-up Australia 67-61 and failed to reach its first victory at this Olympics. Australia outscored Brazil in the first half to take a comfortable lead into half time, but had to face a late charge and narrowly escaped with the victory.

Brazil came back firing in the third quarter. After Australia opened the scoring with a two point shot by Kristi Harrower, the Brazilian went on a 10-0 run which helped them cut the deficit⁵ to 33-28. The Aussies extended⁶ their lead back to 51-40 by the end of third quarter.

Brazil attempted to take control of the game in the final period. Karla Costa scored a three point to bring Braizl with 4 points with just 16 seconds left. Lauren Jackson nailed both of her free-throw shots for Australia and sealed the victory.

Russia and the United States are the other two teams which stay unbeaten. Evgenia Belyakov scored 12 points to help Russia earn a 67-61 victory over host Britian while the United States beat Turkey 89-58 after surviving their toughest test at London.

1 consecutive   

adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的

参考例句：

• It has rained for four consecutive days.已连续下了四天雨。
• The policy of our Party is consecutive.我党的政策始终如一。

2 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

3 basically   

adv.基本上，从根本上说

参考例句：

• His heart is basically sound.他的心脏基本上健康。
• Basically I agree with your plan.我基本上同意你的计划。

4 rival   

n.竞争对手，敌手；vt.与…相匹敌，比得上

参考例句：

• None of us can rival him in strength.我们谁也没他劲大。
• She defeat all her rival for the job with nonchalant ease.她从容不迫地击败求职的所有竞争者。

5 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

6 extended   

adj.延伸的；伸展的；延长的；扩大的v.延伸(extend的过去式和过去分词)；伸展；延长

参考例句：

• an extended lunch hour 延长了的午餐时间
• France has greatly extended its influence in world affairs. 在世界事务中，法国的影响已大大地扩大了。 来自《简明英汉词典》