Israel recovered from Sunday's loss to the United States as they beat China 80-41 in their second group B match of the Paralympic men's wheelchair basketball at the USTB Gymnasium on Monday.

Roei Rozenberg had a game-high 19 points, while Lior Dror and Dotan Meishar contributed 16 and 15 points respectively, combining for 19 rebounds.

"Through this game we wanted to give more players a chance to play on the court, really show their skills and see how it works with different combinations of players," said Lior Dror, Israeli center.

"We have to make sure we are ready for the next match against Brazil. So we will study them, find their strengths and try to stop them."

Israel started strong with tough defence and taking the ball to the paint, where they took profit from the under-sized Chinese, scoring 50 points in the key and adding 10 second chance points out of their eight offensive rebounds.

Huang Xunan was China's best player. The 23-year-old forward posted 15 points and six rebounds. Chen Guojun was the other Chinese to reach double figures with 10 points.

"Though we lost the game, we staged a better performance than Sunday. Our team is a new one and it's the first time for us to participate in the Paralympics. Chen Guojun has played wheelchair basketball for only one year. Our team was not good at defence," said Chinese coach Xu Yuansheng.

"Israel have a very strong inside presence. Our team's tactics is to give full play to our speed and flexibility to make up for our height disadvantage. "

"Many countries have mature league for wheelchair basketball. For instance, Japan boasts of over 180 wheelchair basketball teams. In China, there are only 8," added Xu.

Israel, with a 1-1 record, will meet winless Brazil (0-2), while China (0-2) faces Australia. Both matches will be played at the Indoor National Stadium on Tuesday.

(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2008)