By Niki Bakouli/ bakouli@eurohoops.net
Serbia beat Italy (76-64) in a game that was decided at the first quarter when the rested Serbs got a 27-11 lead over their tired opponents and the winners got the last open ticket for Spain’s FIBA World Cup 2014.
The hosts, Spain, had already qualified as also did Olympic champions USA. Six more teams from Europe got the qualification via their Eurobasket classification and they are France, Lithuania, Croatia, Ukraine, Slovenia and Serbia.
The teams qualified from previews FIBA continental tournaments are Iran, Philippines and Korea from FIBA Asia Championship, from Afrobasket Angola, Egypt and Senegal and from FIBA Americas championship the teams are Mexico, Puerto Rico, Argentina and the Dominican Republic. Also both teams competing in FIBA Oceania championship, Australia and New Zealand got the qualification.
The last question is which teams will get the four wildcards left in the competitions, with Brazil, China and two teams from Europe considered the most possible outcome in this decision.