THE towering Chinese team proved too much to handle as they overpowered Singapore's boys 34-21 in their opening Group D match of the Asian Youth Games FIBA 33 (Basketball).

After a closely-contested first period in which Singapore were only trailing 8-11, China upped their tempo and made full use of their height and strength advantage to pull away to 23-12 by the end of the second period.

With sharp shooter Li Weijie pouring in the points and 2.06m tall centre, Zhang Minghao, 16, dominating the post, China fended off a fight-back by Singapore in the last period to seal the match one minute from full-time.

Singapore were crushed by China 33-7 in the FIBA 33 Group C girls' match, and the match ended 3 minutes into the second period. FIBA 33 is a 3-on-3 basketball game where the first team to reach 33 points wins.