Regal FC Barcelona earned its first win in the Nike International Junior Tournament after defeating Team China 83-77 in Group B on Friday afternoon in Barcelona, Spain. The local team climbed to 1-1 record, while Team China suffered its second loss and fell to 0-2. Josep Perez collected 23 points for the winners and Lluis Costa added 14. Guo Ailun hit 17 and added 7 rebounds and 4 assists for the losing side, leading 5 players in double-digits. Team China put up a great fight, coming back from a 10-point deficit at half time, to put Barcelona under pressure in the closing minutes. Tomorrow Barcelona will take on Zalgiris while Team China will finish its games in a match-up with Crvena Zvezda.

Team China showed its competitiveness right from the tip-off and took an 11-18 lead after 7 minutes. But Nick Spires was a force under the boards, helping to narrow the gap to 2 at the end of the first quarter, 19-21. Perez scored from the arc to tie the game, then Barcelona hit the accelerator with a 12-2 run at the end of the first half to go on top by 10 at the break, 42-32. Ailun and Wang Zirui put together some good plays at the close of the third quarter to cut on the gap to just by 3 points, 59-56, but Spires scored 4 in a row, and with another lay-up restored the lead to 67-59 inside the last 6 that seemed to decide the game, but Team China didn't throw in the towel. Ju Mingxin and Zhu Xuhang both hit three-pointers, and Ailun added a lay-up to make it just a 6 point game inside the last minute, but turnovers thwarted the Chinese team from completing a gutsy comeback.