KATOWICE, Poland – World champion Spain used a relentless defense to pound Greece, 82-64, and Serbia slipped past Slovenia, 96-92, in overtime in the European basketball championship semifinals on Saturday.
Spain, which has been runner-up six times at the tournament but never champion, will play Serbia in Sunday’s final. The two played in their tournament opener, which Serbia won, 66-57.
Playing tight man-to-man defense against Greece, the Spaniards shut down guard Vasileios Spanoulis and cleaned up on the boards to control their semifinal.
“It was a very good game, especially because our (level of) defense once again was the one we’ve been working so many weeks to get to,” Spain coach Sergio Scariolo said. “This is the main key.”
Spain held Greece scoreless for the first four minutes of the second quarter to open a 34-24 lead and continued to push the pace, extending the lead to as many as 23 points.
Greece committed 20 turnovers and shot just 36 percent from the field.
“We made some bad decisions offensively in the first half, we gave them some fast breaks and they scored some easy points,” Greece guard Ioannis Kalampokis said. “It was hard for us to try to recover.”
Center Pau Gasol led Spain with 18 points and six rebounds, while guard Rudy Fernandez chipped in with 14 points.
“I am very happy about today’s victory,” Gasol said. “We played very well as a team. We did not start the tournament well. We were not focused enough. Fortunately our form picked up with every game.”
Spain dropped two of its first four games, but the veteran squad raised its level and finds itself in a familiar position - playing for a European title.
At the European championship two years ago, Spain beat Greece in the semifinal, only to lose in front of its home crowd to Russia on a last-second shot.
The Spaniards are determined not to repeat the failure this weekend.
“We are one step closer to our goal,” Spain center Marc Gasol, Pau’s brother, said. “We want it a lot.”
Milos Teodosic carried Serbia late against Slovenia, scoring 24 of his game-high 32 points in the fourth quarter and overtime.
“It is a great win for us,” Serbia guard Ivan Paunic said. “At the beginning of Eurobasket nobody expected that we would play in the final.”
Serbia has the youngest team at the tournament, with an average age of 22.4 years, and even coach Dusan Ivkovic said he was building toward the 2012 Olympics in London, and not expecting such success in Poland.
Teodosic, who was 6 of 9 from behind the arc on the night, nailed a three from the top of the key with 24 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game at 79.
The guard hit two more threes in overtime and sealed the win with a pair of free throws with 10 seconds to play.
Slovenia had the game in hand, up five with 1:20 to play in regulation. But without its best player – center Erazem Lorbek who fouled out – the team couldn’t hold on.
“We had our chances today,” Slovenia forward Domen Lorbek, Erazem’s brother, said. “At the end of the game we were up a few points, but then we made some stupid mistakes and then my brother fouled out and for us I think we didn’t play anymore in the low post and that hurt our game.”
Slovenia will play Greece for the bronze medal.
Earlier, Tony Parker scored 28 points to lead France past Turkey, 80-68, to clinch a spot at next year’s world championship. (AP)