With a quick start fueled by Pau Gasol and Juan Carlos Navarro, Spain destroyed Lithuania, 89-67, and moved into the semifinals of the World Championships for the first time in 24 years.

In the gold medal game of Eurobasket 2003, Spain was upset by Lithuania, which always seems to have deep runs in international tournaments. The Baltic nation has finished fourth in the last three Olympics.

Lithuania (4-3) was primed for another surprise with four straight wins after dropping its first two games. But it was no match for Spain, which continued its string of blowouts.

Spain (7-0) forced 15 first-half turnovers and Gasol and Navarro scored 15 points each to help build a 47-30 halftime advantage. Lithuania never got back in the game and trailed by 27 points early in the third period, surrendering a 10-0 surge by Spain to open the second half.

"The way we started the game, running and setting the tone from the beginning, that was the key," Gasol said. "We just kept running and being aggressive. We have to be really happy right now."

Gasol, the All-Star forward of the Memphis Grizzlies, had 25 points and nine rebounds and Navarro, a former draft pick of the Washington Wizards, scored 22 points. Spain has beaten its foes by an average of 24.8 points.

The victory set up a marquee matchup Friday with fellow unbeaten Argentina, the defending Olympic champion. However, Spain has beaten Argentina nine straight times, including a pair of exhibition games leading up to this event.

"It's a tough game either way," Gasol said. "We'll see how it goes. Argentina is a really tough team with a lot of experience, and they're the Olympic champions."

Navarro and Carlos Jimenez made 3-pointers around a turnover by Wizards forward Darius Songaila to start the game. Denver Nuggets forward Linas Kleiza answered with a 3-pointer, but Gasol made a jumper in the lane and Navarro drained another 3-pointer.

An 11-0 run to close the quarter highlighted by Rudy Fernandez's sensational reverse dunk off an alley-oop pass from Sergio Rodriguez gave Spain a 28-11 lead. Three more turnovers by Lithuania led to another dunk by Fernandez and a layup by Alex Mumbru early in the second period.

Toronto Raptors guard Jose Calderon had four of Spain's 17 steals. Spain also made 22-of-28 free throws while Lithuania sank 3-of-9.

Ksystof Lavrinovic scored 17 points and Kleiza added 15 with 14 rebounds for Lithuania, which will play Turkey in a classification game Thursday.

"We made a lot of childish mistakes," Kleiza said. "As young as we are, we still had chances to win this game but we gave them away."