Spain defeats Greece 82-64 to reach final at European basketball championship

Spain beats Greece to reach Eurobasket final

KATOWICE, Poland — World champion Spain defeated Greece 82-64 to advance to the final of the European basketball championship.

The win gives six-time runner-up Spain another shot at its first European title.

Spain held Greece scoreless for the first four minutes of the second quarter to open a 34-24 lead that Greece couldn’t get below seven points.

Los Angeles Lakers center Pau Gasol led Spain with 18 points, while Portland Trail Blazers guard Rudy Fernandez added 14.

Spain will play either Slovenia or Serbia in the final on Sunday.

Tony Parker scored 28 points to lead France past Turkey 80-68 for a spot in next year’s world championship.

After trailing by as many as 19 in the first half, France battled back to tie the game at 59 late in the third quarter. Parker, who plays for the San Antonio Spurs, made two free throws to spark a 17-0 run that put the French ahead for good.

“We are so happy to win this game because the first quarter was really tough for us, we were down 20 and never gave up,” French forward Florent Pietrus said. “And we’re so happy because we’re going to the world championship next year.”

France and Turkey both lost in the quarterfinals, and were playing only to determine the final placings. The top six teams at the tournament automatically qualify for next year’s world championship. Turkey has already qualified as the tournament’s host nation.

Turkey, which was playing less than 18 hours after a 76-74 overtime loss on Friday to rival Greece, ran out of energy against a French team that had one full day of rest.

“Because of the schedule, in not 24 hours we played two very tough games,” Turkey guard Kerem Tunceri said. “The first maybe 15 minutes we played great, but after that because of our condition we went very bad down.”

Croatia earned the other automatic bid for the 2010 worlds, beating defending champion Russia 76-69 behind 18 points and eight assists from Roko-Leni Ukic.

Croatia will play France Sunday for fifth place, while Russia will face Turkey in the seventh-place game.