Pau Gasol scored 28 points to lead Spain to a 93-83 victory over Angola on Wednesday, the African champions' first loss of the basketball world championship.

Spain's Pau Gasol (L) and Angola's Joaquim Gomes fight for a rebound during their World Basketball Championships game in Hiroshima August 23, 2006. [Reuters]

The win, two days after Spain beat Germany by 21 points, guaranteed Spain (4-0) the top spot in the six-team group. Both teams had already advanced to the 16-team second round, but Angola (3-1) continued its impressive tournament run by staying with Spain until the final minutes.

"Angola's been a real tough opponent for everybody and we knew they would be tough," said Spain reserve guard Rudy Fernandez, who finished with 16 points. "We are very happy to secure first in the group. Angola can be very dangerous for any team and they could have a high-quality finish."

With the 2.13-meter (7-foot) Gasol, who plays for the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies, scoring 13 points inside, Spain led 46-36 at halftime and most people were waiting for the blowout to begin.

But Angola scored the first five points of the second half, and Joaquim Gomes, who played at Valparaiso from 2000-04, shook off first-half foul trouble to keep his team in it.

"We started a little nervous but that's normal," Angola coach Alberto Carvalho said. "After eight, nine minutes, we played like we did in the first three games. We lost only the first quarter. Some people call us a small team, but we play basketball and we played well."

The 6-8 Gomes was relentless on the boards and managed to avoid fouling out until the final minute despite having to cover Gasol most of the time.

Gomes scored the final five points of the third quarter, including a jumper at the buzzer, to get Angola within 65-57.

Spain started the final quarter with a 6-2 run, but Gomes scored inside and after a turnover by Spain, Miguel Lutonda was fouled hitting a 3-pointer and his four-point play made it 71-65 with 7:34 to go.

Jorge Garbajosa, who signed with the Toronto Raptors earlier this summer, hit a 3 to restore Spain's lead to nine points, but Eduardo Mingas scored inside and Lutonda hit another 3 to make it 74-70 with 5:58 left.

With the crowd in 10,000-seat Green Arena firmly behind Angola, Gasol started to assert himself inside again, six points in an 11-4 run that seemed to finally take the life out of Angola.

Gomes finished with 24 points and 11 rebounds and he received a huge round of applause when he fouled out.

Garbajosa added 15 points for Spain, which concludes play Thursday against Japan.

Angola, which finished 11th in the 2002 world championships, plays Germany on Thursday.