(REUTERS) – Spain stayed on course to retain their European championship basketball title with an impressive 86-64 win over Slovenia in the opening quarterfinal yesterday, with their semifinal opponents for tomorrow being either hosts Lithuania or the tournament’s surprise package Macedonia, who met later yesterday. France play Greece and Russia take on Serbia in the other two quarterfinals today.
Slovenia made a bright start to the match, taking an early 11-4 lead, and stayed in front throughout the first quarter when they hit several three-pointers to carve out a 23-16 advantage.
Spain soon regained their composure, however, and contained the Slovenians in the second period, as centre Marc Gasol dominated in the paint and Juan Carlos Navarro found his shooting range.
The Spaniards, who won their first Eurobasket title in Poland 2009, led 35-31 at halftime and opened the third quarter with a 19-2 run which effectively sealed the contest.
Navarro, who scored nine points in that rally, led the winners with a game-high 26 points, Paul Gasol poured 19 and collected 16 rebounds and Jose Calderon added nine points.
Slovenia, who have never enjoyed a podium finish as an independent nation, will now enter the 5th-8th place playoff along with the losers of the other three quarterfinals.
The winners and runners-up of Eurobasket 2011 will qualify automatically for next year’s Olympics in London along with hosts Britain, while the next four teams in line will enter an inter-continental, 12-team play-off for another three berths.