ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Puerto Rico earned its first win at the basketball world championship by beating China 84-76 Tuesday, using its strong transition game to overcome the Chinese big men.
Angelo Vassalo scored 22 points and Denver Nuggets forward Renaldo Balkman had a double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds for Puerto Rico. Nathan Peavy and Jose Barea added 13 points each as Puerto Rico (1-2) bounced back from losses to Greece and Russia in previous Group C games over the weekend.
China (1-2) relied heavily on 7-footers Yi Jianlian and Wang Zhizhi to stay in the game, as the duo scored 20 of the team's 21 first-quarter points. But the quicker Puerto Ricans countered with fast breaks, repeatedly beating their opponents in transition to take a 44-37 halftime lead.
China pulled within three points in the fourth quarter, but Puerto Rico again answered with a couple of fast breaks to make it 77-69 and China never looked likely to fight back.
Yi finished with 24 points, while Wang had 17.
