中国男篮挺进16强

Slovenia's Radoslav Nesterovic (C) splits the

defense of China's Wang Zhizhi (L) and Yao Ming during the first

round of the world basketball championships in Sapporo August 24,

2006.[Reuters]

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Wang Shipeng's

three-pointer at the whistle has put China through the group stage to

reach the final 16 at the ongoing Basketball

Men's World Championship in Japan.

The clutch-time throw was his only score in the game, but was good

enough to help China pass Slovenia 78-77.

China's star center Yao Ming contributed 36 points and 10 rebounds.

Both China and Slovenia entered the game with only one target: beating

the other side to reach the knockout stage.

The two teams opened the game head-on-head and scored successively

before Slovenia took a quick run to widen the gap, leading the game 22-17

at the end of first quarter.

In the second quarter, Slovenia extended their lead to eight points,

ending the first half 46-38.

China then managed to trim down the deficit to only two points in the

third quarter, leaving the score 59-57.

However, Slovenia again took the upper hand thanks to their quick

breakthroughs to lead the game with a sizeable advantage.

In the final minutes, Wang Zhizhi, another star Chinese center,

bombarded the rivals with a three-pointer and two free throws to put

China back on track.

Zhu Fangyu added another three-pointer to cut down the deficit to only

one point, followed by Yao Ming's free throw that had evened the scores at

75 apiece.

With only 31 seconds to go, Slovenia launched their final attack and

converted the chance into two points.

China was left with only six seconds when Wang Shipeng dribbled the ball to release it in the final

second of the game, scoring a dramatic three-pointer for China!

China lost their first three group matches to Italy, the US and Puerto

Rico respectively but managed to win the final two matches against Senegal

and Slovenia to reach the next stage.

(Agencies)