Slovenian Bostjan Nachbar (right) collides with Turkey’s Ender Arslan during their match at the World Basketball Championship in Saitama, Japan, yesterday.

SAITAMA, Japan • Spain ousted defending champion Serbia and Montenegro 87-75 here yesterday to join reigning Olympic champion Argentina as unbeatens advancing to the World Basketball Championship quarter-finals.

National Basketball Association star centre Pau Gasol of Memphis scored 19 points and grabbed 15 rebounds as Spain, looking like a title threat, denied the five-time world champions a chance for a third crown in a row.

“We made one of the best games in this tournament. We showed we had the heart,” Spanish coach Pepu Hernandez said. “We were good in offense and defense, changed speed well and were practical when Serbia came back at us.”

The Spanish have not lost in four years to the Serbians, who have only one player back from their 2002 title team, and have beaten defending champions in five global events in a row.

“I see Spain as a favourite for this tournament along with the USA Dream Team,” Serbia coach Dragan Sakota said.

NBA Orlando Magic centre Darko Milicic, who led Serbia with 18 points and 15 rebounds and played on an NBA championship team at Detroit, said Spain is playing as well as he has seen any team ever play, including NBA clubs.

“They are playing the best basketball I ever saw,” Milicic said. “Every time you make a mistake they make you pay. Every mistake we made gave them a 3-pointer or an easy basket.”

Argentina, powered by 28 points from National Basketball Association star guard Emanuel Ginobili, beat New Zealand 79-63 to stay perfect after six games.

Argentina will play for a semi-final berth on Tuesday against Turkey, which defeated Slovenia 90-84 behind 24 points from guard Serkan Erdogan of Spain’s Tau Ceramica.

The Spanish have a date with Lithuania, which edged nemesis Italy 71-68. The Italians have knocked Lithuania out of three major events since 1998, including the 2004 Athens Olympic semi-finals on their way to a silver medal.

Today’s round-of-16 games from the opposite bracket find the US NBA stars facing Australia, Germany playing Nigeria, France meeting African champion Angola and European champion Greece taking on Asian champion China.

Ginobili was the top playmaker but his San Antonio Spurs teammate Fabricio Oberto, a center, added 23 points and 10 rebounds to help Argentina claim a berth against Turkey.

“They are a dangerous team,” Ginobili said. “You don’t let them do the things they want to do. They come at you inspired. The next game is the one we were playing for. It’s the semi-finals or nothing.

“We knew in any situation we would win this game. To win the next one means we’re going to have to be focused.”

NBA guard Arvydas Macijauskas led Lithuania with 15 points while Italy made only 1-of-8 free throws in the final 7.8 secs, ending a mastery that extended to the 2000 Olympics and 1998 worlds.

“We knew they would be tough. We knew when we played them we would all be keyed up,” said Lithuanian NBA standout Darius Songaila of Chicago.

Turkey lost both prior games with Slovenia but took revenge thanks to an inspired effort from Erdogan. Slovenia made only 21-of-35 free throws and only 24-of-48 from the field.

“We missed a lot of free throws. We shot terrible. That was a lot of it,” said Beno Udrih, another NBA team-mate of Ginobili.