Yugoslavia rallies to set up Argentina in final match

Roger Lajoie, Reuters, Indianapolis, Indiana

Yugoslavia overcame a sluggish first half to defeat New Zealand 89-78 in semi-final play at the World Basketball Championships on Saturday.

The victory puts the defending champion into Sunday's gold medal game against an unbeaten Argentina (8-0) team, which earlier defeated Germany 86-80.

New Zealand (4-4) will battle Germany (5-3) for the bronze medal.

"We're going to be playing against the best team in the tournament so far," Yugoslavia coach Svetislav Pesic said.

"Yugoslavia has been the world champion four times. We want to make it a fifth time. It's not every day you get to play in the world championship final game."

However, It wasn't the easy ride to the final that many observers were expecting.

The Kiwis stunned Yugoslavia (6-2) in the opening quarter, taking a 30-19 lead while shooting 64 percent from the field.

The Yugoslavs shot a miserable 25 percent from the field and were clearly reeling despite the support of a noisy contingent of fans.

"We didn't think we could lose, so maybe that's why we played bad defense in the first quarter," Pesic said.

"But that's why we won at the end, we played good defense (the rest of the way)."

Yugoslavia managed to close the deficit to 48-39 by the half, as New Zealand continued its strong shooting and showed remarkable poise against their much more experienced opponents.

But as the third quarter wore on, the Kiwis appeared to tire as Yugoslavia finally found its scoring touch, dominating the quarter to lead 66-58 after 30 minutes.

The Kiwis could manage just 10 points in the third quarter to Yugoslavia's 27.

Yugoslavia controlled the game from there and was never threatened in the final quarter.

The four-time world champion Yugoslavians have become favorites to lift the title after the United States was relegated to the classification round.

The Kiwis are the surprise story of the tournament, making only their second appearance ever at a world championship.

The winners of just one game in their WBC tournament history, New Zealand has survived without the presence of its star, Sean Marks, who left the tournament with an eye injury.

Still, the defeat was hard to take, said coach Tab Baldwin.

But the Kiwis must comeback against the Germans if they want to claim their first world championship medal.

"I don't want the guys to think of it as a consolation game," Baldwin said. "We're playing for a medal."

Earlier, Hugo Sconochini hit two free throws with less than a minute to play as Argentina beat Germany.

Argentina go into Sunday's final looking to repeat their victory at the inaugural world championship held in Buenos Aires in 1950 -- the only time they have won a medal in this event.

The Germans appeared sluggish in the opening quarter, managing just 11 points and shooting just 25 percent from the floor to trail 16-11 after 10 minutes.

But they rallied for 30 points in the second quarter to take a 41-36 half-time lead.

With the lead changing hands nine times in the first three quarters, neither side was able to build a double-figure lead, and by the start of the final quarter Argentina had cut Germany's advantage to 62-59.

Argentina managed to rally in the final few minutes and Sconochini's free throws broke an 80-80 deadlock to secure them a place in the final.

Emanuel Ginobili injured his right leg in the first half and wound up with nine points in 15 minutes.

It is not yet known whether he will be able to play in the championship game.