Gasol, Spain to play Serbia in Eurobasket championship

KATOWICE, Poland (AP) -- Pau Gasol scored 18 points and pulled down six rebounds to lead world champion Spain past Greece 82-64 and into the final of the European basketball championship on Saturday.

The dominating win gave Spain, a six-time runner-up at the tournament, another shot at its first European title. On Sunday, Spain will play Serbia, which defeated Slovenia 96-92 in overtime, led by guard Milos Teodosic's 32 points.

Playing tight man-to-man defense, the Spaniards shut down Greece guard Vasileios Spanoulis and cleaned up on the boards to control their semifinal.

"It was a very good game, especially because our [level of] defense once again was the one we've been working so many weeks to get to," Spain coach Sergio Scariolo said. "This is the main key."

Spain held Greece scoreless for the first four minutes of the second quarter to open a 34-24 lead and continued to push the pace, getting out on the break and extending the lead to as many as 23 points.

"We made some bad decisions offensively in the first half, we gave them some fast breaks and they scored some easy points," Greece guard Ioannis Kalampokis said. "It was hard for us to try to recover."

Spain guard Rudy Fernandez chipped in 14 points.

At the European championship two years ago, Spain beat Greece in the semifinal, only to lose in front of its home crowd to Russia on a last-second shot.

Spain is determined not to repeat the failure this weekend.

"We are one step closer to our goal," Spain center Marc Gasol, Pau's brother, said. "We want it a lot."

Earlier Saturday, Tony Parker scored 28 points to lead France past Turkey 80-68 to clinch a spot at next year's world championship.

After trailing by as many as 19 in the first half, France battled back to tie the game at 59 late in the third quarter. Parker then hit two free throws to spark a 17-0 run that put the French ahead for good.

"We are so happy to win this game because the first quarter was really tough for us, we were down 20 and never gave up," France forward Florent Pietrus said. "And we're so happy because we're going to the world championship next year."

France and Turkey both lost in the quarterfinals, and were playing only to determine the final placings. The top six teams at the tournament automatically qualify for next year's worlds. Turkey has already qualified as the tournament's host.

Croatia nabbed the other automatic bid for the 2010 worlds, beating Russia 76-69 behind 18 points and eight assists from Roko-Leni Ukic. Sergey Monya led Russia with 18 points.

Croatia will play France on Sunday for fifth place, while Russia will face Turkey in the seventh-place game.