Lithuania – Serbia 68-87 (25:24, 13:25, 17:24, 13:14)
Serbia is in the semi-finals of the World Cup! In the quarter-final duel, Serbia defeated Lithuania with a brilliant performance, winning 87:68. The first quarter saw good three-point shooting from the Lithuanian team, while Serbian players mostly responded with drives and inside play. With a 5:1 advantage in three-pointers in favor of the rivals, the score after ten minutes was 25:24. Although Lithuania had a six-point lead twice, Serbia reduced the deficit to a point in the last two minutes of the first quarter.
The energetic defense at the end of the first quarter turned into a lead for Serbia shortly after the start of the second quarter. Several steals, along with better control of defensive rebounds, gave the Serbian team a six-point lead in the middle of the second quarter.
To counter Lithuania’s tough defense, Bogdanovic and Guduric found solutions for Serbia in drives through the middle of the paint, resulting in a maximum lead of +9. However, after two Lithuanian possessions, they closed the gap to six points when Coach Pesic called a timeout. Milutinov’s points on the other end were canceled out by free throws, but then Captain Bogdanovic scored five consecutive points to make it 49:38 after twenty minutes of play.
Lithuania started the third quarter with a 5:0 run. However, Serbia managed to stop the run with three-pointers from Nikola and Stefan Jovic, allowing them to extend their lead. A new three-pointer by Stefan Jovic, giving Serbia a +14 lead in the middle of the third period, prompted Lithuania to call a timeout. Until the end of the third quarter, Serbia continued to control the game, and an 18-point lead before the end of the 30th minute was thanks to Aleksa Avramovic.
In the fourth quarter, Serbian team didn’t allow the rival to threaten the lead, and after two consecutive three-pointers by Petrusev, they built a commanding +25 lead with six minutes left in the game. It was clear at that point that Serbia would achieve a significant victory and advance to the semi-finals of the World Cup in Manila!
Serbia will play in the semi-finals on Friday against the winner of the Slovenia vs. Canada game.