Stars Lead Argentina, Spain

SAITAMA, Japan —  Title contenders Argentina and Spain advanced to the quarterfinals of the FIBA world championships Saturday after strong games from their top players.

Manu Ginobili scored 28 points to help make up for Argentina’ one-for-18 three-point shooting in a 79-62 win over New Zealand, and Pau Gasol had 19 points and 15 rebounds to lead Spain to an 87-75 victory over defending champion Serbia and Montenegro.

Lithuania, Turkey and Germany also advanced to the final eight.

Arvydas Macijauskas scored 10 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter and Lithuania overcame four missed free throws in the final seconds for a 71-68 victory over Italy.

Serkan Erdogan had 24 points, including two three-pointers, and Turkey went five for five from three-point range over the final 4:22 to beat Slovenia, 90-84, to advance to the final eight.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 23 points and on Nigeria’s final possession tipped the shot of a driving Ime Udoka and grabbed the rebound at the buzzer in Germany’s 78-77 victory.

Germany will face the winner of the U.S-Australia game in the quarterfinals.

Argentina improved to 6-0 at the worlds and will play Turkey (5-1) in the quarterfinals Tuesday. Spain will play Lithuania.

Ginobili, who plays for the San Antonio Spurs, made Argentina’s only three-pointer to give the South Americans a 70-58 lead with 3:47 remaining.

New Zealand pulled to within nine points in the fourth quarter before Ginobili’s three-pointer started a 12-point run for Argentina.

“I guess we have to be happy that we had a bad day today,” Ginobili said.

“We didn’t need the three-point shooting. We expect to get better for our next game.”

Argentina, runner-up at the 2002 worlds in Indianapolis, got 23 points from Fabricio Oberto.

The 7-foot Gasol, who plays for the Memphis Grizzlies, won the matchup of NBA big men, outplaying 6-11 Darko Milicic of the Orlando Magic.

Milicic had 18 points and 15 rebounds for Serbia and Montenegro (2-4), which won the gold medal in 2002 as Yugoslavia, but only one player from that team was back to defend the title.

As bad as Lithuania was on free throws, Italy was worse, missing five in the last 2.1 seconds, three by Gianluca Basile with 0.6 seconds left and his team down three points.

“It was a tough game and everyone expected it,” said Lithuania guard Mindaugus Zukauskas. “We were lucky they missed those free throws. We could have won the game easily but we created a lot of problems for ourselves.”

Engin Atsur, who played at North Carolina State last season, also had two of Turkey’s three-pointers in the closing run -- his only points of the game.

“We have great team chemistry,” Atsur said. “We don’t have big egos on this team, everybody shares the ball and our guys did a great job of handling their big guys. They have NBA talent and we got pushed around inside but we won the game by making the big shots.”

Turkey was two for 11 from three-point range before getting hot from beyond the arc. Erdogan’s second three-pointer gave Turkey an 83-81 lead with 2:17 to play. It was the 24th and last lead change in the game.