Serbia is the first semi-finalist at the FIBA Basketball World Cup. Coach Svetislav Pesic’s team won convincingly against USA conqueror Lithuania with 87:68.
Lithuania, who were previously the only team unbeaten alongside Germany, were only able to hold back in the first quarter when the three-pointers were still falling. After that, the previously best shooting team in this World Cup cooled off massively and couldn’t find any more solutions to crack the good Serbian team.
In attack, the Pesic squad could rely on Hawks guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, who could always come back to the basket and was the best scorer with 21 points (9/13 FG). In addition, point guard Stefan Jovic (11, 5 assists) repeatedly destroyed the Lithuanians in pick’n’roll, especially in interaction with center Nikola Milutinov (9) or Filip Petrusev (17).
On the other hand, Lithuania, who together with Serbia have the best offense in the tournament, hardly found their rhythm after a good first quarter. Jonas Valanciunas (11, 4/5) scored efficiently, but the center hardly got any good opportunities to finish. The most diligent point collector of the men from the Baltic States was Tadas Sedekerskis with 14 points and 9 rebounds. Lithuania started 5/7 from downtown, after that only 19 percent of the threes wanted to fall.
Just two days ago, Lithuania surprisingly beat the USA in the last game of the intermediate round, now the basketball nation has to go to the consolation round, where it will probably be about nothing. Serbia, on the other hand, will meet the winner of the duel between Slovenia and Canada in the semifinals on Friday. In addition, the Serbs have a good chance of getting one of the two remaining European Olympic tickets.
DateTimeEncounterResult5. September10.45Lithuania vs Serbia68:875 Sep2.30pmItaly vs. USA-6. September10.45 Germany vs. Latvia-6. September2.30 p.m.Canada vs. Slovenia-
