By Neil Jerome Morales
MANILA (Reuters) – Serbia beat Lithuania 87-68 in the World Cup quarter-finals on Tuesday with Bogdan Bogdanovic, who also plays for the Atlanta Hawks, leading the scoring with 21 points.
Following a tight opening quarter, Serbia tightened the screw in the second, limiting Lithuania to 13 points – their lowest tally in any quarter of a World Cup game since 2019.
Serbia, who had won their previous 13 games when leading by double digits at halftime, entered the break up 49-38 and the sixth-ranked team built a 25-point lead with six minutes to go.
Lithuania had won bronze in 2010 by beating Serbia 99-88 and came into Tuesday’s game on a high after handing the United States their first loss of the tournament loss on Sunday.
The U.S., the highest-ranked team left, play 10th-ranked Italy at 1240 GMT as they bid for a record sixth world title.
On Wednesday, Germany play Latvia and Canada meet Slovenia.
(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Ken Ferris)
