US women's hoops cruises past China 99-75

PARIS (AP) Nneka Ogwumike scored 16 points and Jantel Lavender added 14 to help the U.S. women's national team beat China 99-75 on Saturday in an exhibition game.

The U.S. scored nine of the first 11 points and led 27-10 after the first quarter thanks to Tina Charles and Diana Taurasi, who combined for 19 points in the period.

The Americans, who will play France on Sunday, extended the advantage to 51-24 at the half and never looked back in the second half.

''I thought we played better,'' U.S. coach Geno Auriemma said. ''Our offense, we got into some transition stuff. We made shots, which we didn't do yesterday at the beginning of the game. We had a really good flow. We got contributions from a lot of people. I thought that first half was about as well as we've played.

Lavender made all seven of her shots and Ogwumike only missed one of her eight attempts from the field for the U.S., which shot 53 percent from the field.

''Coach told us that we needed to redeem ourselves,'' said Ogwumike. ''(Against Australia) we weren't really taking great shots. Our shot selection was a little bit poor. (Coach) made an emphasis on us getting inside and finishing at the basket, not fading away. I think we did a great job of doing that.''

Wen Lu and Liting Zhang each had 10 for China.

The two teams will meet again in pool play at the world championship in Turkey.