Australia's Opals have bowed out of the race for gold at the women's basketball World Cup, falling to China 61-59 in a heart-breaking semi-final.
In circumstances eerily similar to the sides' clash at the Tokyo Olympics, China broke the deadlock with two free-throws in the dying seconds to win the game.
The Opals will now face Canada at 1pm AEST on Saturday in a bid to secure the bronze medal.
"We're disappointed," Opals coach Sandy Brondello said. "You get this far, you want to try and get to that gold-medal game but I'm proud of our effort.
"We've just got to try and regroup now because it's a really quick turnaround."
Regardless of the result of Saturday's final against the USA, China will leave Sydney having recorded their equal-best result at a World Cup - they took silver in 1994 and have not finished on the podium since.
China were foul prone in the first quarter and unable to match Australia for rebounds but shot with superior accuracy in front of a crowd of 11,916 at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena.
Cayla George and Marianna Tolo both missed regulation lay-ups in the first quarter to set the tone for a wayward shooting performance.
"We missed a lot of easy baskets that we'd usually make," Brondello said.
"It's a credit to China, making us speed up a little bit too much."
Australia were in the unfamiliar situation of being outsized by their opponents, with guard Sami Whitcomb proving a more prolific scorer than the Aussie talls early on.
She iced two three-pointers early in the second quarter to help the Opals keep pace as China threatened to pull away.
China's 2.08m-tall Xu Han went on the rampage, scoring as many points as the entire Australian team in the second quarter (13) to give her side a six-point lead at the main change.
Needing to recover from their lowest halftime score of the tournament, the Australians looked to the youngest member of their team, Ezi Magbegor.
While she could not match the Chinese for height, Magbegor parlayed her athleticism into eight points in two-and-a-half minutes early in the third.
Steph Talbot was Australia's defensive talisman as they restricted China to a miserly 11 points in that quarter.
When Whitcomb pounced on a loose ball and charged up court as the final five minutes approached, the Opals were finally back on level terms after trailing for almost two quarters.
A Talbot lay-up gave Australia the lead for the first time since the second period as the sides continued to trade blows.
Talbot turned the ball over in the final minute and China's Wang Siyu streaked away to level at 59-59, forcing an Australian timeout.
Wang stepped up to the stripe after being fouled by Whitcomb in the final three seconds and made both shots to restore China's lead.
Magbegor had the chance to draw the scores level after the restart but her shot bounced off the rim and the Chinese were home.
"As an athlete, you're always going to dwell on things, we're super competitive," Opals forward Darcee Garbin said.
"We'll get back to the hotel, see our families, that's your time to vent. Then we'll move onto Canada.
"We're getting ready to get a bronze medal."
THE WORLD CUP MEDAL MATCHES:
Third-place game: Canada vs Australia: 1pm AEST
Final: USA vs China: 4pm AEST
Both games will be played at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena on Saturday.
