HIROSHIMA -- Team Japan suffered its second loss in as many days Thursday night.

The host nation's 104-55 setback to Spain eliminated it from the FIBA World Championship. Japan finished Group B play with a 1-4 record. Spain, which blew open the contest in the third quarter, improved to 5-0 at the Hiroshima Prefectural Sports Center and left town as the winner of the six-team field.

The World Championship shifts to Saitama on Saturday when 16 teams begin the Eighth Final Round. In addition to Spain, Germany (4-1), Angola (3-2) and New Zealand (2-3) qualified for the next phase of competition. Panama (0-5) departed as the group's lone winless team. Spain now prepares to face Serbia and Montenegro in its next game.

Japan blew an 18-point halftime lead against New Zealand Wednesday en route a 60-57 loss. By all accounts, it was a tough task for Japan to overcome that heartbreaking setback in less than 24 hours.

"It was difficult," Japan guard Ryota Sakurai said. "But there's all the fans and kids that paid money to see our games. We thought that we had to do our best for the fans and kids. And we tried to do that, but . . ."

Sakurai didn't have to finish his thought.

It was clear that Spain was the superior team Thursday. Spain outscored Japan 77-27 in the final two quarters. As the game's outcome was already locked up, Takehiko Orimo scored nine straight points, all on 3s, the last of which made it 100-53 with 1:37 left.

When the rout was finished, Shinsuke Kashiwagi admitted his team faced overwhelming odds to bounce back.

"Spain's a very great team," Kashiwagi said. "But we talked about it (and) we decided to fight during the game all the time."

Japan's intentions were good. The team's performance wasn't. Japan shot 34 percent from the field and played atrocious defense, allowing 60 points in the paint. Pau Gasol, who scored 21, was one of five Spaniards in double figures.

Orimo led Japan with 13. Spain opened the third quarter on a 19-0 run to increase its margin to 66-27. Daiji Yamada ended the scoring drought on a layup with 3:29 left in the period.

By that point, Pepu Hernandez's squad was in cruise control, running its offense at a high level and playing exceptional defense. Alex Mumbru pushed the Spaniards' advantage to 74-34 on a 3-pointer. Marc Gasol followed with a nifty spin-around bank shot to make it 76-38.

Japan trailed 78-34 after three periods. For Spain, its runaway victory came as no surprise to backup center Marc Gasol.

He said Japan's lack of interior size and bulk was problematic against his team, which muscled its way inside at will.

He added: "It's very difficult to play a game after you lose a game like they lost yesterday, but that's basketball. In the world championship you've got to forget about what happened. . . . It's tough, but we are professionals and we've got to do it."

Japan coach Zeljko Pavlicevic shook up his starting lineup, replacing center/captain Satoru Furuta with Yamada and inserting Takahiro Setsumasa at the point in place of Kei Igarashi. Shunsuke Ito, a seldom-used backup center, saw time off the bench in the opening half as well. Furuta didn't play in that span.

Despite the changes in the lineup, Japan's offense was inconsistent and didn't pose much of a threat to the mighty Spaniards. Spain led 27-14 entering the second quarter and upped the margin to 47-27 at the break.