The semifinals at the 2014 FIBA World Basketball championships are set after Serbia routed Brazil and France stunned favored Spain in Wednesday’s quarterfinals in Madrid.

Serbia rode CSKA Moscow guard Milos Teodosic to an 84-56 victory, while France got big games from Laboral Kutxa Vitoria’s Thomas Heurtel and Boris Diaw to knock Spain out 65-52.

Serbia and France will meet in Friday’s semifinal in Madrid for a ticket to Sunday’s gold-medal game. The other semifinal pits Lithuania against United States of America in Barcelona on Thursday.

With another masterful performance over a higher-ranked team in a do-or-die scenario, Serbia is heading to the medal rounds after erasing Brazil from the quarterfinals. With Teodosic running the show from the opening tipoff, Serbia controlled the tempo until exploding after halftime to lead by as many as 31 points en route to victory.

Teodosic hit 10 of 10 free throws and scored all of his 23 points in the first three quarters for Serbia. Nemanja Bjelica and Bodgan Bogdanovic of Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul combined for 20 more points, while Miroslav Raduljica and Nenad Krstic of Anadolu Efes Istanbul scored 10 each, and Stefan Markovic of Unicaja Malaga added 9. Bjelica added 8 rebounds and 5 assists, Bogdanovic 6 rebounds and 2 blocks.

Serbia shot phenomenally: making 21 of 34 two-pointers (62%), 9 of 22 threes (41%) and 13 of 16 free throws (81%). The Serbia defense was just as good, holding Brazil’s top three scorers – Leandrinho Barbosa, Marquinho Vieira and Tiago Splitter – to 20 points, 12 below their average.

Source: Euroleague.net