Serbia beats Italy, still unbeaten at Eurobasket
BERLIN — Serbia finished the toughest group at the European basketball championship undefeated by beating Italy 101-82 before its coach blasted the event’s organizers on Thursday.
Guard Milos Teodosic had 26 points and eight assists as Serbia made sure of its Group A win with a perfect 5-0 record, with both teams heading to the knockout stage in Lille, France.
Spain (3-2) edged Germany 77-76, also advancing from the group. Germany (1-4) was eliminated and gave a rousing standing ovation to Dirk Nowitzki, who might have played his last match for his homeland.
Nemanja Bjelica had 19 points and eight rebounds for Serbia, which shut down Italy’s powerful front line for most of the match.
Andrea Bargnani and Danilo Gallinari scored a combined 21 points throughout the first three quarters. Bargnani finished with 17 points and Galinari 14, while Alessandro Gentile led Italy with 19.
Italy (3-2) rested high-scoring guard Marco Belinelli, who has a sore groin muscle.
“Defense is our greatest strength, and we used our greatest strength,” Serbia coach Sasa Obradovic said.
Obradovic also criticized the schedule — five group games in six days — in which teams often got less than 24 hours to rest.
“It’s incredibly difficult; it’s not human,” he said.
Sergio Llull made four free throws late against Germany to secure Spain’s victory. Dennis Schroder could have sent the game into overtime, but he made only two of three free throws with three seconds remaining.
Spain had what seemed a safe 10-point lead until Germany rallied late.
Nowitzki and Maodo Lo hit consecutive 3s to bring Germany within one with 23 seconds remaining.
Llull then made two free throws, so did Schroder, and Llull hit two again. Schroder went for a 3-pointer and got the foul call but missed the last shot from the line.
Schroder finished with a game-high 26 points and had seven assists and six rebounds. Nowitzki finished with 10 points and seven rebounds. Tibor Pleiss had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Pau Gasol contributed 16 points and 11 rebounds for Spain, and Sergio Rodriguez added 19 points. Llull had 14.
Serbia will take on Finland in the first knockout game on Sunday. Finland (2-3) finished fourth in Group A after losing 78-65 to Poland (3-2).
Belgium (3-2) made sure of advancing from Group D by beating Ukraine 79-71. Latvia (3-2) also went through after beating Estonia 75-64.
In Group C, Slovenia (3-2) defeated Macedonia 62-51 to make the Round of 16.
In a Group A game between two already eliminated teams, Russia salvaged some pride by defeating Bosnia-Herzegovina 81-61.
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