Despite a 12-point Chinese lead early in the second quarter, the unbeaten Greeks rallied by outscoring China 26-6 in the third quarter to capture a quarter-final berth against France, which beat Angola 68-62.

A victory would have launched the Chinese into the final eight and brought a chance to improve their best showing in global competition, the eighth-place finishes from the 1994 World Championship and 2004 Athens Olympics.

"All I can say is we made our lowest goal," Chinese center Yao Ming said. "We didn't win but we went down fighting. We did well in the first half. In the second half they were too much for us."

China took a last-second victory over Slovenia just to reach the 16-team playoff rounds, but were pounded by the United States and Italy as well as European champions Greece and Yao was blunt when asked about China's weaknesses.

"Everywhere. Our team doesn't have a lot of spirit to play against the best teams in the world," he said.

"We just need to play more and get more experience."

The 2.23m star center for the National Basketball Association's Houston Rockets averaged a tournament-high 28 points a game but managed only 10 points against a determined Greek defense led by Sofoklis "Baby Shaq" Schortsianitis.

The 21-year-old Greek center stands 2.08m but has the wide size and inside speed and power that earned him a nickname harkening to NBA superstar big man Shaquille O'Neal.

"Baby Shaq" earned Yao's respect in their first live meeting.

"I hope good luck for him the rest of his career, especially when he comes over to play in the NBA," Yao said.

Theodoros Papaloukas led Greece with 19 points while Vassilis Spanoulis added 15. The Greeks made only three turnovers, none in the second half, while forcing 24 from China and making 13 steals.

"My team came out with a lot of respect for China and we had a few nerves," Greece coach Panagiotis Yannakis said.

"China were up 10 points. We lost our concentration but then we started to play good defense. We pushed more and more to get them to make mistakes because the team that makes the most mistakes loses."

China stormed to an 8-0 lead in the first 4:03, the Greeks missing their first seven shots on the way to missing 16 of their first 21, and stretched the lead to 23-11 on Wang Shipeng's 3-pointer 41 seconds into the second quarter.

But Greece awoke with a vengeance. Papaloukas scored eight points and Spanoulis added seven in a 19-4 Greek run over a five-minute span of the second quarter, helping the Greece seize a 41-36 half-time edge.

"Greece was very disciplined," Yao said. "There is not a lot of difference between their inside shooters and outside shooters. They can help each other when they play together."

The Greeks broke open the game in the third quarter, six steals and nine Chinese turnovers contributing to a 26-4 run in the last eight minutes of the period for a 67-42 edge entering the fourth quarter.

"In the beginning it looked like we had prepared well but after that we were very bad in offense. We made too many turnovers and we lost confidence," China coach Jonas Kazlauskas said.

"Spanoulis and Papaloukas changed the game for Greece and broke our defence. They were more aggressive."