Serbia beats Argentina in worlds; China advances

China offered little resistance as it knew before the match that it would advance because of Puerto Rico's 88-79 loss to Ivory Coast, allowing Turkey to delight the home crowd in Ankara with spectacular dunks and fancy passing.

Serbia and Argentina played arguably the best game of the tournament, with the lead changing 12 times before Aleksandar Rasic sealed Serbia's victory by making four free throws in the last 11 seconds.

Scola, Argentina's captain, sank two free throws with 38 seconds left to make it 77-77. But Serbia forward Dusko Savanovic hit a big 3-pointer with 18 seconds remaining to put his team in front.

Savanovic led Serbia with 19 points and Nenad Krstic added 18 as Serbia's deeper bench carried the day.

Scola's 32 points means he has scored 30 or more for a fourth straight game. He is now Argentina's all-time leading scorer at the worlds with 357 points. Ernesto “Finito” Gehrmann scored 331 points in the 1967 and 1974 editions.

Serbia and Argentina now face regional rivals: the Serbs playing Croatia and the Argentines facing Brazil. Serbia and Croatia were part of former Yugoslavia, which won a record five world titles. The last two came without Croatia after the country started breaking apart in bloody conflicts.

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