VICTORIA (Canada) - A game-changing first-half explosion, a second-half comeback, a hectic final few moments and a missed game-winning shot: Czech Republic and Uruguay gave fans the game of the tournament.

Czech survived Uruguay's second-half surge and avoided a collapse to win 80-79 and advance out of Group B into the Semi-Finals. They play Canada on Saturday for a spot in the championship.

Uruguay were eliminated with the loss.

Turning point: Czech Republic marched on a 19-0 run in the second quarter, flipping a 22-19 deficit to a 38-22 lead. Czech made seven straight shots during the stretch, including a 4-for-4 mark from three. Uruguay whittled their deficit down to one point late in the game, but Jayson Granger's go-ahead three with 5 seconds left fell off the mark.

Game hero: Tomas Satoransky. Czech's best player did it all, notching 19 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds for the victors. In contention: Ondrej Balvin added a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double for Czech. Granger and Bruno Fitipaldo each had 22 points for Uruguay. Granger added 7 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals.

Stats don't lie: Czech's 51.7 percent shooting and big midgame run were the difference. But 22 turnovers almost unraveled it all.

Bottom line: Czech has to clean things up if they want to beat Canada in the Semi-Finals. They've committed 37 turnovers through their first two games and haven't shown a killer instinct.

They said: "For a big part of the game, we were in control. But they never stopped fighting. They were fighting till the end and it was a very hard game till the last seconds. I'm just happy and proud of our team that we ended up with the victory." - Czech Republic's Patrik Auda

"I think we did a hell of a job. I'm proud of my teammates, I'm proud of this team. It'd been 35 years since we played against a European national team. We played with heart, with desire, and we had the last  ball to win the game. Shot didn't go in, I take responsibility of the last shot. But we've got to be proud. We've got to be proud for the whole country. They stay up almost till midnight to watch us pay. I think this is the beginning of a good national team of Uruguay and people are going to start knowing us now." - Uruguay's Jayson Granger

FIBA