In perhaps the best game of the tournament, Serbia reached the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup final by beating France 85-90 in the semifinal at Barclaycard Center in Madrid.

Serbia, which will play its first World Cup title game as an independent country, will face the United States of the America in the gold-medal game on Sunday. Serbia won five World Cup trophies as a member of Yugoslavia – the last in 2002, when it successfully defended the title for the first and only time since 1963.

France will play for the bronze medal – which would be its first ever in the World Cup – against Lithuania on Saturday. Former Euroleague MVP Milos Teodosic of CSKA Moscow starred all night for Serbia and finished with 24 points on just 12 shots to lead six Serbia scorers in double figures.

Stefan Markovic of Unicaja Malaga added 13 points, Anadolu Efes Istanbul center Nenad Krstic, Miroslav Raduljica and Bogdan Bogdanovic of Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul scored 11 each and forward Nemanja Bjelica, also from Fenerbahce, amassed 10 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists.

Nicola Batum shined with 35 points on 8-of-12 three-point shooting for France, while Boris Diaw scored 13, Laboral Kutxa Vitoria guard Thomas Heurtel 12 and Evan Fournier 10.

Source: Euroleague.net