China women beat Croatia 83-58 in Olympics

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LONDON (AP) — Chen Nan scored 28 points and Miao Lijie added 17 to lead China to a 83-58 victory over Croatia on Monday.

Chen and Miao played major roles in 2008 to help China finish fourth at the Beijing Games and are major reasons why China has opened this competition with victories in its first two games. China beat the Czech Republic 66-57 in its opener.

China led 39-31 at the half before blowing the game open in the third quarter. Chen Xiaoli, Miao and Gao Song hit three straight three-point plays that gave China a 60-40 lead with 3:04 left in the period. Croatia (0-2) could only get within 15 the rest of the way.

Miao and Chen scored 24 of the team's 39 points in the first half.

Sandra Mandir scored 22 points to lead Croatia (0-2), which played the U.S. tough for 30 minutes in its opener before losing by 25. Croatia is playing in its first Olympics.