TAIYUAN, China, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Elizabeth Cambage proved too strong in the paint as Shanxi thrashed Tianjin 100-73 to earn its third consecutive victory in as many games in the Women's Chinese Basketball Association (WCBA) league here on Thursday.
Cambage shot 13 of 19 from the field to score a game-high 31 points in less than 24 minutes. With a 25-point margin in hand, Shanxi rested the Australian center for the entire final period.
"We couldn't fight defense against their big center Cambage. We didn't have the tools to defend against this," admitted Tianjin head coach Miroslav Popov.
Cambage, Wu Tongtong and Yu Dong all combined for 25 points for Shanxi in the match, before a three-pointer from Yu Qi set the first quarter score at 28-21.
Cambage's dominance went on into the second quarter, but Maggie Lucas made a few shots in a row from behind the arc to put Tianjin back in the game, though Shanxi still managed to extend its advantage to 14 points into half-time.
Cambage headed back to the bench as Shanxi led by 20-plus points midway through the third quarter, and Tianjin failed to rally afterwards.
Shanxi's Fu Jinqiu and Wu Tongtong added 13 and 10 points respectively.
"I'm happy that we won the game. We executed what the coach had told us quite well," Fu said.
"We accomplished the two goals that we had for this game: one was to win, the other was to not overload important players," said Shanxi's head coach Cesar Ruperez Garcia.
"As a team, every player is too far from expectation that we have for this season. Right now we just keep working to get the chemistry. When we get the chemistry, every player will be able to bring good things for the team," he added.
Lucas led Tianjin's charge with 24 points including six three-pointers. Before being fouled out, Han Ziqi scored 15 points, the only other Tianjin player in double digits.
"Our team played a very good first half. In the second half, the quality of their domestic players went up, and we couldn't catch them until the end of the game," Popov pointed out.
