Defending champions Spain and Argentina, the world’s top-ranked team, who have both endured miserable world championship campaigns, will clash for fifth place today.
As the classification matches got under way on Friday, Spain overcame Slovenia 97-80, while Luis Scola of the Houston Rockets was back to his best, with his 27 points helping Argentina overcome Russia 73-61.
Spain will now meet Argentina today in the minor battle for fifth spot, while Slovenia and Russia will be left to fight for seventh and eighth.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Spain have been the biggest disappointment in Turkey, winning just three from five pool games before being ousted in the quarter-finals by Serbia. Prior to the tournament they had been labeled as the main threat to the US for the gold medal.
Spain struggled early against Slovenia, being down 23-16 by the end of the first quarter, forcing them to play catch-up basketball for the remainder of the evening.
Slovenia held tight throughout the remainder of the first half to still be leading 41-38 when the half time buzzer sounded.
Spain woke-up in the second half, claiming the lead for the first time with two minutes gone. The lead changed hands throughout the remainder of the quarter, but it was Spain who finished the quarter on top, taking a 64-62 lead into the final 10 minutes.
The final quarter turned into one-way traffic as Spain began to play the basketball that fans have come to expect, as the pace of Ricky Rubio wore Slovenia down allowing Spain to score 33 final-quarter points.
Scoring just five points in the first half, Juan Carlos Navarro came alive in the second half, finishing with a game-high 26 points. Rudy Fernandez and Fran Vazquez were the next best of the Spaniards, both ending with 16 points.
Goran Dragic of the Phoenix Suns and Jaka Lakovic shared scoring duties for Slovenia, both finishing with 19 points.
Russia and Argentina quickly had to put their semi-final losses behind them, having little more than 24 hours break before needing to take the court again.
Early on, it looked as if Argentina had recovered the better of the two, running out to an 11-point lead at the beginning of the second quarter, only for Russia to come storming back to be down by just three, 36-33 at halftime.
Again in the third quarter, the Argentina side developed a healthy lead of eight points only for Russia to once more fight their way back, even briefly grabbing the lead 52-51 through Andrey Vorontsevich. However, a Leonardo Gutierrez three at the buzzer saw Argentina leading 54-52 with a quarter left.
In the final quarter, Argentina would once more open a sizable advantage and this time there was no coming back for the Russians.
After Scola, the next best of the Argentines were Carlos Delfino with 27 points and Fabricio Oberto with 10. Sergey Monya was the best of the Russians with 17 points.
Yesterday, the US were to tackle Lithuania while Turkey were to face Serbia in the semi-finals.
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