Lithuania stunned Argentina 104-85 to close the Quarterfinals of the FIBA World Championship at the Sinar Erdem Dome. Now Lithuania plays the USA in the semifinals on Saturday, September 11.

Lithuania was head to head with Argentina in the first couple of minutes but their sticky man to man defense, focused on Scola and that didn’t allow any passes inside nor any comfortable shots, gave them all the confidence to start their run. The Lithuanians took off with an 8-0 run to be up 17-10 after a basket by Robertas Javkotas with 4:06 left. Then Argentina came back with a 5-0 run that finished with an amazing steal, behind the back dribble and dunk with a foul by Hernan Jasen with 1:48 to close the game 21-17.

That play by Jasen was supposed to be the spark that the Argentineans needed, but the Lithuanians never lost their composure and continued to hit from behind the arc after a three pointer by Tomas Delininkaitis and then a two point field goal by him finished the first quarter up 28-18.

In the second quarter it was when it all fell apart for Argentina as Lithuania kept their balanced attack, perfect shooting from long distance as they connected their first eight three pointers with success and a suffocating defense. Argentina tried to find Scola, who only had two points in the first quarter, and responded with some made shots. The Argentineans never made a three pointer in the first half and they went down 50-30 after a tip-in at the buzzer by Delininkaitis.

At halftime Lithuania had Mantas Kalnietis, Tomas Delininkaitis and Simas Jasaitis with 9 points each.

In the third quarter the Lithuanians started with a quick 6-0 with a dunk by Martinas Pocius, a three pointer by Kalnietis and then a free throw by Jasaitis to take a 56-30 lead. In the middle of the quarter Argentina showed some life by making their first three point basket, by Pablo Prigioni with 4:47 and then another by Carlos Delfino and Jasen with 3:19 to be down 70-47. Lithuania maintained their comfortable margin and ended up 85-53 after a three pointer by Delininkaitis with two seconds left. Six of the Lithuanians had already scored in double digits.

Despite being down by such a large margin, Argentina never gave up, tried every trick on the book but they just couldn’t find the rhythm to make this a contest. Lithuania had seven players who scored, all of them in double figures led by Simas Jasaitis with 19 points.

This loss broke the Argentineans run to the semifinals in this tournament after reaching it in 2002 and 2006. This is also the last time that the “Golden Generation” will play in the FIBA World Championship.

Lithuania, who was one of the four wildcards for this tournament, made it to their first semifinals in FIBA World Championship history.

– The USA pulled away in the second half to see off Russia 89-79 and book their place in the semi-finals at the 2010 FIBA World Championship.

Up 44-39 at the break, the Americans came out strong in the third quarter to take their first double-digit lead of the night, 58-47, on Russell Westbrook’s breakaway dunk. They then kept their foot on the pedal and the Russians were unable to keep up with them the rest of the way.
 
Kevin Durant had 33 points for Mike Krzyzewski’s team, who will next face the winners of the last quarter-final, that pits Argentina against Lithuania.
 
The game was played exactly 38 years since the 1972 Olympic Games final, which was the first loss by a USA team in the Olympics.
 
There was little to separate the two teams in the opening quarter. The lead changed five times and there were six ties, including at the end of the period, when it was knotted at 25.
 
The teams traded three-point shots – combining to go seven of 14 from long range – and Russia got some valuable offense off the bench from Timofey Mozgov, who worked the pick-and-roll to perfection with Dimtriy Khvostov.
 
The USA relied on Durant – who had 13 points in the first quarter alone – to get their offense going and also banked on their ability to get to the free-throw line.
 
Sergey Bykov buried a three to edge Russia in front 9-8 before the USA ran off seven unanswered.
 
Down 20-16, the Russians edged in front thanks to Mozgov who had two dunks as part of a 7-0 that put them up 23-20.
 
The American defense broke down early in the second period and Khvostov got a wide open lay-up before Andrey Vorontsevich, who visited with FIBATV.com after the game, hit a jumper for a 29-25 edge.
 
Vitaliy Fridzon later hit a jumper and David Blatt’s men were up 35-30 after Bykov scored on back-to-back possessions.
 
The USA though replied in emphatic fashion by accounting for the next 12 points.
 
Derrick Rose drove to the hoop, Eric Gordon hit from beyond the arc and Rose made a free-throw that saw the Americans edge back in front, 36-35, with 3:08 left in the half.
 
They pulled away as Durant made a floater in the lane, Andre Iguodala knocked down a pair from the charity stripe and then concluded some good ball movement with a double-clutch lay-up for 42-35.
 
Vorontsevich’s jumper with 31.7 seconds left in the half ended a severe scoring drought for Russia as they had not scored a single point since the 4:48 mark of the second quarter.
 
Durant drove baseline for his 18th and 19th points of the first half and Sasha Kaun got Russia within 44-39 just before the break.
 
Chauncey Billups and Westbrook combined for 15 points in the third quarter to take some of the scoring load off of Durant. Billups hit two three-pointers to push the American lead up to 49-42.
 
Sergey Monya hit a long bomb of his own to get within 50-45. However, Russia were dealt a huge blow as Mozgov picked up his fourth foul and went to the bench midway through the period.
 
Billups had a lay-up and a Russia turnover resulted in Westbrook’s thunderous jam for the Americans’ first double-digit lead.
 
Bykov converted a three-point play before Westbrook knocked down a corner three and got another breakaway slam. Lamar Odom capped off a 17-3 run with an easy lay-up that made it 65-50 with 2:37 left in the quarter.
 
Tyson Chandler cleaned up Westbrook’s miss in the dying seconds of the period for a 70-56 cushion.
 
The USA pushed their lead to as many as 18 twice in the early stages of the final frame. The Russians got within 84-72 on Mozgov’s dunk with 3:28 left to play, but the deficit was too much.
 
Russia were dealt a blow as Vorontsevich had to leave the game late on with a right leg injury.