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Wang Shipeng delivered the most dramatic victory in Chinese basketball history, his 3-pointer at the buzzer giving China a 78-77 triumph over Slovenia and last-16 spot yesterday at the World Basketball Championship in Sapporo, Japan.

With clutch precision worthy of the National Basketball Association, the 23-year-old guard for China's Guangdong Southern Tigers pulled up from beyond the arc and gave his homeland a shock Group D round-robin win.

"There were only 5.8 seconds to go. I didn't have time to think about it," Wang said. "All I can do is dribble up the court and make the shot."

Italy held off Puerto Rico 73-72 and left them 4-1 in Group D, trailing only the unbeaten US team of National Basketball Association stars.

Puerto Rico finished on 2-3 along with Slovenia and China, but will not reach the 16-team knockout stages based upon a point-differential tiebreaker involving the three deadlocked teams.

Slovenia finished plus-7 while China finished on minus-2 and Puerto Rico was at minus-5.

China's victory over Serbia and Montenegro to reach the final eight at the 2004 Athens Olympics was regarded as the team's finest hour. Even though this one might not advance China, it will be long recalled for the joy it brought.

"It's a miracle. It's a bigger miracle than our miracle in the last Olympics," said forward Zhu Fangyu.

NBA star 2.26m centre Yao Ming scored 36 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to lead China. He was stunned to see China win a game in the same thrilling style usually reserved for the NBA.

"That was a really class shot, like we see in the NBA. It's really hard to believe that shot happened for us," Yao said. "I'd pay anything I can to have his jersey with him signing it."

Yao also sounded a hopeful note for the future, saying Chinese fans have not seen the last of such last-moment heroics.

"With our improvement, we will have more games like that going into the last shots," he said.

Yao called the 2004 Olympic win "a church" from which Chinese players draw inspiration to keep fighting until the last second, which is what it took to defeat a Slovenia line-up boasting four NBA players and two ex-NBA players.

"We turned fantasy into reality," Yao said. "We're fighting to the last minute. We just want to fight like men. Now we can go home to China and face our families."

A shot-clock malfunction left Slovenia protesting they should have the ball off a China possession but officials put two seconds on the clock and gave China the ball.

Zhu took a cross-court pass and buried a 3-pointer to pull China within 75-73 and Yao equalized on a lay-in with 30 seconds remaining.

Uros Slokar hit what appeared to be the game-winning basket for Slovenia with 5.8 seconds remaining, but Wang dribbled up the court and fired in the decider at the final horn, sending Chinese players jumping for joy.

"People should focus more on how the team fought back after being down by several points," Wang said.

Following are the standings after the World Championship first round matches on Thursday (tabulated under games played, won, lost, field goal percentage, 3-point shooting percentage and points):

Group A

1. Argentina 5 5 0 464 339 10

2. France 5 3 2 353 329 8

3. Nigeria 5 2 3 371 393 7

4. Serbia and Montenegro 5 2 3 409 352 7

5. Lebanon 5 2 3 357 451 7

6. Venezuela 5 1 4 336 426 6

Group B

1. Spain 5 5 0 476 336 10

2. Germany 5 4 1 421 384 9

3. Angola 5 3 2 451 406 8

4. New Zealand 5 2 3 345 393 7

5. Japan 5 1 4 322 393 6

6. Panama 5 0 5 326 429 5

Group C

1. Greece 5 5 0 404 358 10

2. Turkey 5 4 1 370 358 9

3. Lithuania 5 3 2 413 353 8

4. Australia 5 2 3 370 349 7

5. Brazil 5 1 4 399 392 6

6. Qatar 5 0 5 310 456 5

Group D

1. United States 5 5 0 543 428 10

2. Italy 5 4 1 386 367 9

3. Slovenia 5 2 3 434 433 7

4. China 5 2 3 424 455 7

5. Puerto Rico 5 2 3 432 440 7

6. Senegal 5 0 5 355 451 5

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency August 25, 2006)