Australia buries China in Olympic basketball

Australia buried China's hopes of advancing from the Olympic basketball group stages on Friday, cruising to a 93-66 win in Rio de Janeiro.

Everyone who checked into the game for the Aussies scored as they repeatedly broke down a clueless Chinese defence with easy buckets off nifty passing.

Cameron Bairstow led Australian scorers with 17 points while guard Matthew Dellavedova dished out 8 assists.

Former NBA player Yi Jianlian had 20 points to once again lead China, which is now 0-4.

Australia has four NBA champion players and have established themselves as a potential threat to US hopes of a third straight gold medal after testing the American professional stars two days earlier in a 98-88 loss.

"Coming off a tough loss the other day (to the USA) we wanted to get back on track," said Bairstow.

"Yi Jianlian got going early but we managed to shut him down after that."

Australia is now 3-1 in Group A. 

The group-leading Americans, now 3-0, play Serbia later Friday.

It will be another disappointing early Olympic exit for a country that produced former star centre Yao Ming and once had hopes of emerging as an international basketball power.

Source: AFP