Players eye the ball going into the basket during the round of 8 basketball match between Italy and Lithuania at the EuroBasket 2015 in Lille, France, on Wednesday. (AFP)

Reuters/Lille, France


Former winners Lithuania booked a semi-final clash with Serbia after they beat Italy 95-85 in overtime, while the high-flying Serbs overpowered the Czech Republic in the European Championships on Wednesday.
Holders and hosts France meet Spain in the first semi-final on Thursday while the Serbs, aiming for their first title as an independent nation, clash with Lithuania on Friday.
The event is also doubling as an Olympic qualifying tournament with the top two sides advancing straight to the Rio Games next year, while the next five-ranked sides enter inter-continental qualifying tournaments for an extra three spots.
The Italians threw away their last possession in regulation and were punished in overtime as Jonas Valanciunas capped an outstanding individual performance.
The Toronto Raptors centre racked up a game-high 26 points and 15 rebounds to cancel out Denver Nuggets’ forward Danilo Galinari’s 17 points for the Italians.
“Italy always scores more than 80 points and before the game we discussed that we will have to score more if we’re going to win this,” Lithuania coach Jonas Kazlauskas told the tournament website.
“It was the first time that we started planning from offence rather than defence.”
Playmaker Milos Teodosic once again pulled the strings for a fast-flowing Serbian team, dishing out 14 assists as forward Zoran Erceg led the scoring with 20 points on the back of strong long-range shooting.
Centre Jan Vesely, who had 23 points and 10 assists, and guard Tomas Satoransky kept the Czechs in touch until the final quarter when they ran out of steam.
Serbia coach Aleksandar Djordjevic, who won a haul of honours for the former Yugoslavia as a player in the 1990s, praised Teodosic.
“He is an unbelievable player,” Djordjevic told reporters.
“His vision is unmatched and he is very special. I enjoy watching him even in training as he keeps producing things I have never seen before.”