Birthday Yao Ming leads China victory over Japan

Birthday boy Yao Ming scored 16 points and 13reboundsin leading China to an 86-53 victory over Japan at the Asian Men's Basketball Championships.

Yao, who turned 25 on Monday, waspitchedonly for a brief time in the first and third quarters, but that was enough to claim the fourth consecutive win for China in the tournament.

After a 6-6 start, Yao scored six points to initiate a 10-0 run for China, which was to see them lead the game until the end.

China built up a 37-15 point lead in the first half and the gap was extended to 30 points by the end of the third quarter.

Du Feng added 12 points for China, while Zhu Fangyu and Li Nan scored 11 and 10 respectively.

China will take on Lebanon in the next match, on Wednesday.

(CRI)

rebound:（籃板球）

pitch: assign as pitcher（指派......作為投手）