ATHENS, August 23 - The totally unpredictable Olympic Men’s Basketball Tournament sprung its biggest surprise yet when YAO Ming and China knocked two-time defending world champion Serbia and Montenegro from the competition with a come-from-behind 67-66 victory in their fifth and last preliminary game.

YAO (see photo) calmly buried four free throws in the closing two minutes, while his teammate DU Feng sank two with 3.2 seconds left to stun the 1998 and 2002 world champs.

With the victory, China finished 2-3 and fourth in Group A, and therefore will face Group B winner Lithuania in the quarterfinals on Thursday 26 August at a new venue, Olympic Indoor Hall. Serbia and Montenegro (1-4) finishes sixth and last in the group and must play Angola on Tuesday to decide 11th or 12th place.

China’s defense, anchored by YAO, starred as Serbia and Montenegro failed to score on anything but three-pointers in the last quarter. China played a zone late in the game that repeatedly left Serbia and Montenegro little or no time to shoot. Before DU’s decisive free throws, Dejan BODIROGA tried a go-ahead three-pointer over YAO with the shot clock expiring, but it rattled out.

In their only other previous Olympic match-up, in the Atlanta 1996 quarterfinals, Serbia and Montenegro (then Yugoslavia) won by 67 points, 128-61.

This time, despite 10-point deficits early in each of the first three quarters, China found ways to stay in the game.

YAO inspired China throughout, playing all 40 minutes to score 27 points, capture 13 rebounds, dish a couple sweet assists and foul out two opposing centers. LI Nan was his partner in the first half, hitting all four three-pointers among his 14 total points. In the second, DU came up with big plays to finish with 12 points.

Predrag DROBNJAK, whose fifth foul put YAO on the foul line for go-ahead free throws with 28 seconds left, led Serbia and Montenegro with 17 points. Milos VUJANIC reached 12 with a 3-pointer on the final buzzer that was rendered unimportant when DU made both his free throws moments earlier.

In the first quarter, between six lead changes and two ties, LI ’s pair of 3-point shots kept China in the game until YAO started seeing the ball. His first basket put China ahead 10-9, but it was followed by the first triple from VUJANIC. When VUJANIC popped another three, Serbia and Montenegro lead 21-16 after 10 minutes.

VUJANIC’s third 3-pointer to start the second quarter plus consecutive inside baskets by Nenad KRSTIC boosted the advantage to 29-19. But then KRSTIC got his fourth foul, and China started to come back behind LI’s third and fourth 3-pointers. YAO fed MO Ke for an open dunk that cut the difference to 31-29, but Serbia and Montenegro hung onto a 34-31 edge at halftime.

Two inside shots by DROBNJAK helped reestablished Serbia and Montenegro’s 10-point lead at 41-31 early in the third quarter. Again, China resurged. YAO and DU combined on 14 points to tie 47-47, then Feng hit the free throws for China’s first lead of the half, although Serbia and Montenegro went ahead 54-51 by the 30-minute mark.

Back-to-back 3-pointers by Vlado SCEPANOVIC seemed to put the world champs in control at 60-53 with 7:06 to play. Instead, China’s defense took over. Serbia and Montenegro waited almost four minutes for another shot to fall, a DROBNJAK three, then until the buzzer for another. In between, China and YAO scored 14 points, including eight perfect free throws, to reach their dream, the quarterfinals.