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China advance with last gasp score
 Yao (left) congratulates Wang Shipeng on his three-pointer. SAPPORO, Japan -- China, Australia, New Zealand and France have booked their places in the second round of the world basketball championships, with Puerto Rico and Brazil both eliminated. China owed their passage to 36 points from Yao Ming and a dramatic three-point buzzer shot by Wang Shipeng as they beat Slovenia 78-77 to go through. Favorites the U.S. completed the round-robin with a 103-58 win over Senegal. Toronto forward Chris Bosh scored 20 points and pulled down 10 rebounds while Cleveland Cavaliers playmaker LeBron James added 17 points and Denver forward Carmelo Anthony contributed 12. "We've really come together in the past month as far as getting our roles together," Bosh said. China qualified fourth behind the U.S. in Pool D after an unexpected win over Slovenia. The triumph ranked above their prior basketball benchmark, an upset of Serbia and Montenegro to reach the final eight at the 2004 Athens Olympics. "It's a miracle. It's a bigger miracle than our miracle in the last Olympics," forward Zhu Fangyu said. China will meet undefeated Greece in this weekend's round-of-16 knockout matches at Saitama, thanks to the Greeks' 76-69 win over arch-rivals Turkey in a showdown of unbeaten teams to decide the Group C crown. Saturday's other playoff games include Argentina-New Zealand, Spain-Serbia and Montenegro, Italy-Lithuania and Slovenia-Turkey. Sunday's games are France-Angola, Germany-Nigeria and United States-Australia. The Aussies routed winless Qatar 93-46 in Group C round-robin play and advanced when Lithuania qualified by eliminating Brazil 79-74. "We've come here and we've done our work," said Aussie coach Brian Goorjian. "It was a tough group that didn't do us any favors but we worked hard. It will be a dream for our country to play the United States." New Zealand dumped Panama 85-75 in Group B, keeping Japan and Panama from advancing. Craig Bradshaw led the 'Tall Blacks' with 17 points. "We're thrilled and delighted because in two days' time we'll wake up and play," New Zealand coach Tab Baldwin said. "We were obviously playing for our survival." Greece joined Olympic champions Argentina, Spain and the U.S. stars as top seeds in the playoff rounds. Argentina completed an unbeaten run through group play with a 83-79 victory over two-time defending champion Serbia and Montenegro. Spain remained undefeated as well, pounding Japan 104-55. Laurent Pietrus scored 19 points to lead France past Venezuela 81-61 and into the playoff rounds. That outcome also sealed Group A spots for the Serbs and Nigeria, which beat Lebanon 95-72, a loss that kept the war-ravaged nation from the final 16. Germany edged out African champions Angola 108-103 in a tournament-record triple-overtime thriller to capture the number two spot in Group B. NBA star Dirk Nowitzki scored 47 points and twice extending the game to an extra period before the Germans prevailed. Slovenia squeaked into the last 16 despite losing thanks to qualified Italy beating Puerto Rico 73-72 and ousting the Caribbean squad on tie-breakers. "It's a strange situation. We're going home but we were so close to being second in our group," Puerto Rico coach Julio Toro said. 
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