Greece, led by Theodoros Papaloukas's 19 points, six assists and five steals, will face France in the quarter-finals.

    Yao, who averaged 23.7 points and 7.7 rebounds in the previous five games, was 3-5 in the field and 4-4 on the line, and received two fouls in 31 minutes.

    Greece cut short the connections from the guards to Yao as it produced 13 steals from China's 24 turnovers.

    "Greece played the best all-out defence in the tournament. We didn't expect it be so difficult to pass the ball to Yao," said guard Zhu Fangyu, who had 12 points.

    "It's quite frustrating to lose the game. We want to go further in the tournament. Entering the second round is just our lowest goal. We did not push ourselves to the utmost," Yao said.

    "Our players did not play against defence like this, which, I have to say, is common game in the European leagues. We committed too many mistakes, and lost the confidence," said China's coach Jonas Kaslauskas, who was with Greece's Olympiakos last season.

    China had started the game well with a opening 12-2 and continued the trend into the second quarter at 23-11.

    After 10-minutes poor shooting, the European champions stuck the foot on the defence to create a series of turnovers for some easy baskets, making a 11-0 run for the first lead on 28-27 midway in the second quarter.

    Greece never looked back after that and took a commanding lead at 78-53 with a 28-6 third-quarter for the good of the game.

    China's six guards committed 17 turnovers and produced none of steals while Greece had 58 points in the paint facing against the 2.26-meter Yao inside. Enditem