Dubai: Two-time defending champions USA will meet Serbia while last year’s runners-up Australia will take on Spain in the semi-finals of the 2014 Fiba U17 World Championship at the Hamdan Sports Complex here on Friday.
The USA – unbeaten world champions in this age category – easily beat Asian champions China 113-71, while Serbia celebrated a tense 71-64 win over Canada in the first two quarter-finals.
In the later matches, Australia – runners-up to the USA in Kaunas, Lithuania in 2012 – had to dig in deep for a 76-52 win over debutants Puerto Rico to set up a last four clash with Spain, 71-67 winners against neighbours France in perhaps the most exciting match of the night.
This is the third edition of the Fiba U17 World Championship and the USA are still to lose a single match. After Thursday’s win, they took their winning run to 13 matches, with Friday’s semi-final against Serbia likely to be a stern test.
France against Spain was a thrilling affair with both teams battling it out until the end. France ended the opening quarter following a five-point cushion at 22-17.
But Spain outscored them in the second quarter 23-11 to go into the half-time break 40-33 ahead. Once again in the third quarter, Spain managed to soak up the pressure from the hard-working French to stay clear at 58-47.
However, France managed to dig deep and kept Spain rooted with the addition of just one point to level the scores 59-59 with 4 minutes 13 seconds remaining. From then the lead changed hands regularly until captain Pablo Perez’s pair of three-pointers did the damage to hand Spain the victory.
The two semi-finals will be played at 6.45 pm and 9 pm at the Hamdan Sports Complex on Friday.
