Pau Gasol had 19 points as Spain defeated Lithuania 91-86 last night to advance to the Olympic gold medal game for the first time since 1984.
Rudy Fernandez bounced back from a third-quarter head injury to score 18 for the Spaniards, who will face either the US or Argentina for the gold medal tomorrow. The US drubbed Spain 119-82 in pool play.
Spain is looking to add an Olympic title to the world championship it won two years ago in Japan.
Simas Jasaitis and Sarunas Jasikevicius each scored 19 points for Lithuania, which will play for the bronze medal for the fifth straight time.
The Spaniards danced at center court after the horn sounded. They have won three straight since their whipping by the US Spain defeated Angola 98-50 in pool play, then beat Croatia 72-59 in the quarter-finals.
Early on, it looked like Spain would breeze. But after Spain took a 28-20 lead midway through the second quarter, the Lithuanians awoke and went on a 14-4 run capped by back-to-back 3-pointers by 6-foot-11 Ksistof Lavrinovic.
Lithuania hit five 3-pointers — three by Simas Jasaitis — in the final 3:50 of the first half to take a 42-40 lead into intermission.
The second half was a riveting possession-by-possession battle, with neither team able to open up a lead of more than four points.
Lithuania clung to the lead until Felipe Reyes drove for a layup to put Spain ahead 55-54 with 2:43 to go in the third quarter.
Jasaitis answered with another 3-pointer seconds later.
Jasikevicius hit a 3-pointer to pull Lithuania within 89-86 with 5.8 seconds to play, but Carlos Jimenez made two free throws to ice the game for Spain.
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