Finland secured an upset victory over China on the opening day of action in Group C at the 2016 FIBA U17 World Championship in Zaragoza, Spain on Thursday.

China bowed to Finland in a 65-58 defeat. The Chinese national under-17 basketball team is part of the Group C that includes Finland, Canada and Australia.

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Finland's 6-foot-6 tall power-forward Elias Valtonen poured in 22 points and grabbed five rebounds to lead the young Finnish team to a good start in the group stage. Andre Gustavson added 18 points and seven rebounds for the winners, who will be facing Canada on Saturday in their next game.

Canada defeated Australia with an 81-78 victory in their opening match.

The towering 16-year-old 6-foot-8 power-forward Xiangbao Li paced the Chinese with a double-double game production of 14 points and 10 rebounds. Haotian Bai and Jie Xue both chipped in with 9 points each for the Chinese national squad. China will be facing Australia on Saturday.

Finland began the first 12 minutes of the game with a strong start as they dominated the opening quarter with a 23-12 output.  China began to get hot after a slow start, as they staged a 17-12 run in the second period to enter the third quarter trailing by by just six points 25-19.

Finland continued to have a hard time dropping their shots as they were held to just 13 points while the opposing team produced 14 points to cut the deficit to just five points 38-33.

In the final twelve minutes of the game, the Finnish were able keep hold of their lead and contained the Chinese to just 15 points while they nailed 17 in last quarter.

TagsFIBA, fiba world rankings, 2016 fiba u17 championship, zaragoza, Spain, china, Finland