FIBA U17 - Serbia advance to set up Semi-Final showdown with USA

DUBAI (FIBA U17 World Championship) - Serbia finished their Quarter-Final against Canada strong to register a 71-64 and advance the Semi-Finals of the 2014 FIBA U17 World Championship, where they will face the United States.

Vanja Marinkovic nailed five three-pointers in scoring 18 points to lead the Serbs while Stefan Peno collected 16 points, six rebounds, six assists and three steals and Vojislav Stojanovic added 15 points for the Europeans.

Canada move into the Classification Games 5-8 despite Jamal Murray pouring in 24 points to go with eight rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Serbia closed the first quarter with the final six points for a 27-16 lead after 10 minutes. They extended the advantage to 13 points, 39-26, in the second period before Canada answered with a 10-0 run to trim it to three points.

The Serbs led 47-40 at the intermission.

Murray spearheaded a 13-0 Canada run to start the second half for a 53-47 lead and the margin was 55-52 after three quarters.

Serbia eventually tied the game at 60-60 with four minutes left and they went ahead 67-62 on a three-ball by Marinkovic with 1:33 minutes remaining. With Murray slowed down by a sore left ankle, Canada went scoreless the final 1:21 minutes.

Canada will face China in Friday's Classification Games.

FIBA