Han, trio of guards stand out against South Africa

Ren Junfei during the game between China and South Africa at the BRICS Games in Guangzhou on June 19, 2017. [Photo: Weibo/cntvsports]

A sport event involving the five BRICS countries is continuing in Guangzhou.

In the men's basketball, Du Feng has followed up his winning debut as national team coach with another success, defeating South Africa 90-61 in the second fixture.

Several players stood out from the night as the team settled comfortably into their grooves.

CRI's Fu Yu brings more from court side.

Having struggled and thrived together in their first game against India, Chinese players found their rhythem against South Africa.

Coach Du Feng is smitten with his team's performances and named a few stand-out players on the squad. He also says rebounds were key to success.

"I told my team that if we won the rebounds, I'm sure we could win big. We did it against India and we did it again today. It shows we are the better team. I told the players that they will definitely struggle with their forms and it will be even harder tomorrow. I am asking them to be prepared. A few of our young guards, Yu Dehao, Wu Qian, Zeng Lingxu, did superbly well. They controlled the pace tonight and executed to the point. I believe they have learned a lot from this game."

Ren Junfei was the game's top scorer with 21 points.

Ren says he feels like both him and the team are on the right track.

"We mainly went on the defensive and pressed them hard, which put a lot of pressure on our opponents. We made a few debatable decisions on substitution in the 3rd quarter and we felt the pressure. Other than that our passings went smoothly and we functioned well as a team. We all hope each of us can improve even further."

The team's other pillar Han Dejun continues to impress with 17 points for China, the second highest of the night.

Han, along with the Chinese guards, also cought the eye of South African coach Craig Gilchrist.

"It was very difficult, the whole Chinese team are very good players. They're all professional players, my guys are all amatures. I thought the big guy, number 55, was extremely difficult to contain, especially with our big guy out, the other guys weren't strong enough. The shooting from all the Chinese guards was excellent, they all shot the ball well so it was difficult to contain them."

Gilchrist admits although they tried to change their defense and confuse the Chinese players, they could not keep them from pulling away in the last quarter.

China has won both games so far at the BRICS Games. They have the chance to finish the tournament with an all-winning record in the game against Russia later today.

For CRI, this is Fu Yu reporting from Guangzhou.