Chinese players celebrate their win. （Photo credit： Xinhua）Photo Gallery%26gt；%26gt；
（BEIJING， August 16） -- After an ugly but exciting fight， China secured a quarterfinal spot by beating Germany 59-55 in their group B clash on August 16.
Before the match， Germany sat in fourth place in the group with four points. China had the same number of points， but ranked fifth， due to a worse record. The United States， Spain and Greece are the top three teams with six points each. The rules for group matches are： 1） A win gives a team two points； 2） A loss brings just one point； 3） The top four teams move to the next round； 4） If two teams are tied in points， the team that has won their encounter%26nbsp；will move up in rank. Germany and China both had two matches left before Saturday， which meant that the winner of their encounter secured a spot in the knockout round.
Both teams started the game with great efforts on defense. China's Yao Ming locked down the paint， while Germany contested China's perimeter shooting. China took the quarter 19-9 by forcing Germany to miss 14 of their 17 shots. Dirk Nowitzki scored Germany's first seven points and Chris Kaman added two. Yao Ming scored eight points for China， while Sun Yue contributed two fierce blocks.
Germany recovered a little in the beginning of the second quarter， thanks to Sven Schultze's two three-pointers. After a 10-1 run， they reduced the gap to 20-19. China regained control of the game after a three-pointer from Yao Ming. Turnovers from tired Chinese guards， however， cost China its lead. Germany returned with a 22-8 second quarter， leading 31-27 at halftime. Yao Ming contributed 12 points and four rebounds in 17 minutes. China's sharp shooters Wang Shipeng and Zhu Fangyu didn't make a single field goal. Nowitzki carried the German team with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
China returned to their suffocating defense in the third quarter and finished 20-8， regaining a 47-39 lead in the end. China extended their lead to 54-41 three minutes into the last quarter， but Germany cut the gap to just one point with one minute to go after a 14-2 run， including 10 points from Nowitzki. Yi Jianlian then scored his most important basket of the game， bringing the score to 58-55 at the 28-second mark. Nowitzki tried to answer with a three-pointer but missed. Yao grabbed a crucial rebound and got fouled. Although he missed one of the two free-throws， Nowitzki turned the ball over in the next possession and virtually handed the match to China.
Yao played 34 minutes in the game， scoring 25 points and grabbing 11 boards. Yi Jianlian contributed nine points and 11 rebounds. Nowitzki missed 13 of his 20 shots， but still contributed 24 points and 17 rebounds. Kaman added 10 points and 12 rebounds.
The defense was what won this match for China. They held Germany to just 29% from the field and forced them to commit 14 turnovers.
Germany will face the United States in their final game and China will play Greece. If Germany can pull out a miracle win and， tie with China or Greece in points， they will still rank fifth because they have lost to both China and Greece （87-64）.
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