Third defeat leaves China reeling

China's hopes of progressing at the world basketball championship suffered a huge blow with a 90-87 overtime loss to Puerto Rico in Japan yesterday.

Meanwhile, Olympic silver medallists Italy booked a spot in the last 16 and European champions Greece virtually assured they would join them as both teams produced comeback wins in Japan.

Houston Rockets centre Yao Ming scored 29 points but fouled out with almost five minutes left in a bad-tempered Group D game in Sapporo.

China squandered a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter to fall to their third defeat and must beat Senegal and Slovenia in their remaining games to have any chance of survival.

"It's difficult to talk after losing like that," China's Lithuanian coach Jonas Kazlauskas told reporters.

"We had some bad minutes. We relaxed too much. That killed us."

"It will be very difficult now," acknowledged Kazlauskas, whose team lost to Italy and the United States in their first two games.

"But we can't keep giving such big advantages to our opponents. If we do, we cannot compete with the best teams in the world."

Puerto Rico moved closer to the last 16 with Elias Ayuso scoring 27 points and Carlos Arroyo 25 to secure a second win for the Central America and Caribbean Games winners.

Italy proved more clinical down the stretch as they beat winless Senegal 64-56 for their third straight win in Group D.

Matteo Soragna finished with 15 points and Marco Mordente added 14 for Italy, who outscored Senegal 22-11 in the decisive fourth quarter.

Greece continued their winning run in Group C when guard Nikos Zisis landed a three-pointer one second before the buzzer to give Greece a 72-69 win over Australia.

The Boomers, who had led by three points with 19 seconds left, fell to 1-2.

Meanwhile, Lithuania finally drew a line under their nightmare start to the 24-team tournament by pulverising Qatar 106-65.

Ksystof Lavrinovic hit 20 points to lead five Lithuania players in double figures in a blowout win that left Qatar on the brink of elimination.

Lithuania play Australia and Brazil in their remaining two games.

US advance

A show-boating US yesterday overpowered Slovenia 114-95 to reach the knockout stages.

Dwyane Wade led the way with 20 points for the tournament favourites, who improved to a perfect 3-0 and secured a place in the last 16 in Japan.

Slovenia slipped to their second loss.