INQUIRER Sports

ISTANBUL?Serbia caused a huge upset at the basketball world championships on Wednesday knocking out champions Spain, 92-89, in the first quarter-final, while later Turkey joined them in the last four with a 10,000 strong home crowd carrying them to an easy victory over Slovenia.

Serbia's victory ended Spain's extraordinary championships record of reaching at least the semi-finals of every major international tournament since the Athens Olympics in 2004.

It was also revenge for the Serbs? defeat by the Spanish in last year's European championship final.

But another year's experience for a youthful Serbian side has evidently benefited the former Yugoslav state as they maintained their cool when it mattered.

On three occasions throughout the game the Serbians were able to develop healthy leads only for the Spanish to come charging back into the game each time, setting up an enthralling final few minutes.

With 24 seconds remaining Serbia received the ball with scores tied. Spain opted not to foul in the hope they would miss one of their free throws, instead backing their defence to cut the Serbians down.

But the ploy backfired when Milos Teodosic let rip from a meter behind the three-point line, sinking his shot and forcing a Spain timeout with the clock showing 3 seconds remaining.

Spain needed to work fast to get a shot off but the shot never came with Jorge Garbajosa turning the ball over, signaling a famous Serbian victory.

It was a true team effort in every sense of the word for Serbia with six players recording doubles figures. Marko Keselj and Kosta Perovic led with 17 points each, supported by Dusko Savanovic with 15, Nemanja Bjelica with 14, Oklahoma City Thunder's Nenad Krstic with 13 and Teodosic with 12.

Spanish captain Juan Carlos Navarro top-scored in the game with 27 points.

The best the current world champions can now finish is fifth.

"We have to come back together and try and find motivation in order to get fifth place. Clearly we are unhappy but we fought to the last moment and we will continue to try and come together for the remaining games," Navarro told reporters following the game.

Navarro also believes Serbia have what it takes to make the final.

"They are very young but very talented. They have proved throughout the championship that they have no fear despite their young age. I think they can continue to do a very good job."

Teodosic stressed the importance of not getting carried away and a need to put this game behind them as their focus now turns to their semi-final against Turkey.

"It is very difficult to forget this kind of game but we have to try and forget everything that happened tonight because in two days we will play the semi-finals."

Turkey did not face the same tough resistance with a sell-out Sinan Erdem Arena cheering their side past a helpless Slovenian team.

"We are really happy and honored to win, it was important for us to get to the semi-finals. We had a belief we would come to this position today," said Turkey team member Kerem Tunceri

"Serbia are a very good team but we have great potential with our supporters, we are enjoying and taking advantage of being the host country. We used our fans to help us today.

"Today's win was a gift for our coach (Bogdan Tanjevic) who is in his last year with us," he added.

Tanjevic said that his call had been answered by his team.

"Before we started I asked my team to make it to the semi final and now they are there," he said.