For the Chinese men's basketball, Friday's final could have been the best chance to win the gold in the world-level competition.

But the young players including the “Walking Great Wall” of Wang Zhizhi, Yaoming and Menk Batere failed to live up to the expectations of the full-house spectators.

Yugoslavia took an overwhelming control on the boards and shot beautifully in the field.

They even played a complete inside game in front of China's center trio. China only played one third of the quarter game, leading 9-4 some three minutes into the game before Yugoslavs took over the lead 14-13 and never looked back.

The second period saw the gap enlarged to 48-32.

As the victory of the Yugoslavian team was a foregone conclusion, the two teams played the fourth quarter with the backups.

Chinese coach Wang Fei said that the Chinese players played badly and Yugoslavia was an outstanding squad and displayed their best form. “Though there is a big gap between the two teams, we should not have lost the game by such big margin,” he said.

“We have lost, but it is good to clash with such a strong team because it is a good opportunity of gaining experience,” he said. “It is not easy to get the silver medal and we have done our best.”

Yugoslav coach said that they were well prepared. “The Chinese team is excellent but they did not display their due form,” he said, adding that they succeeded in curbing the tall center by fast breaks.

(U21net 08/31/2001)