GUANGZHOU, July 7 (Xinhua) -- China felt the pain of playing without top scorer Yi Jianlian as they went down 66-58 to Argentina at the Stankovic Continental Champions Cup here on Sunday.
Argentina, who won all three games in the round-robin competition, will meet China again on Tuesday in the final.
China's promising center Wang Zhelin grabbed 10 points in the absence of Yi. Forward Zhou peng led the home side with 11 points.
The Chinese found it hard to score in the second quarter as Argentina set up a 12-point advantage at the break.
China managed to cut the deficit to 3 point with a 6-0 surge in the third period before Argentina responded an 8-0 run to pull away.
"We're still building our team, so mistakes are inevitable," said China's head coach Yannakis.
In a later game, Puerto Rico beat Nigeria 59-47.
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