Australia ended its preparations for the upcoming men's basketball World Championships with a 63-61 defeat to host China.

After a slow start the Boomers showed tremendous fighting spirit to come within two points of the hosts who secured fifth spot with the win in the Stankovic Cup.

Milwaukee Buck Andrew Bogut scored 20 points and went head-to-head with China's inspirational Yao Ming who finished with a game high 21 points.

Ming scored the winning points with just 2.7 seconds left in a timely return to form for the Houston Rockets star who is recovering from a broken foot.

Notable contributions for the Boomers came from Sam McKinnon with 12 points and Jason Smith who registered 10 points.

China's Wang Zizhi (11) and Liu (10) offered valuable support to Yao.

Boomers coach Brian Goorjian said the battle between Bogut and Ming was a good one.

"They both ended up in foul trouble. Yao played tirelessly but I thought we were the dominant team with him off the floor."

The Chinese opened up a commanding 45-30 lead in the third period but the Boomers fought back with 14 straight points over the final seven minutes of the quarter to reduce the lead to 48-46.

After a titanic struggle the home team triumphed with Ming and Wang outstanding.

"We came out really flat so we were on our heels for most of the first half.

"We fought back and clawed our way into the game, we did the same thing we did against Greece and France and gave ourselves a chance to win."

Australia opens its world campaign against Brazil on Saturday and will be buoyed by the Brazilians' 86-74 loss to France.

The Boomers earlier in the week beat France who finished third in the Stankovic Cup.

"We came into this tournament wanting to get better and we've shown somethings to ourselves that we didn't know coming in.

"We can play with anybody. I think the guys are all right about it (world champs)."

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