Serbia beat Brazil second time around, reach semis

Serbia's players celebrate during their Basketball World Cup quarter-final game against Brazil Serbia showed the second time's the charm in beating Brazil 84-56 on Wednesday to reach the semi-finals of the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup. Milos Teodosic poured in 23 points, Bogdan Bogdnovic had 12 and both Miroslav Raduljica and Nenad Krstic had 10 points in the win for Serbia, who lost to Brazil 81-73 in group play earlier at the World Cup. "We played like a team and really had a strong second half. I think we deserved this win," said Raduljica. In the semis, Serbia will face on the winner of Wednesday's later quarter-final between France and hosts Spain in Madrid. Anderson Varejao and Marquinhos Vieira both had 12 points for Brazil, who failed to reach the top four of the Worlds for their seventh straight tournament. Serbia got some great play from Teodosic in the first quarter in building a five-point lead, which was 21-17 after one quarter. Alex Garcia gave Brazil the lead 23-21 with two three-pointers but the Serbs responded with an 8-0 run. Brazil answered with a 9-0 spurt of their own before Serbia finished the first half with eight straight points and a 37-32 lead. Serbia came out strong after the break to take the third quarter 29-12 and never looked back.