US and Lithuania progress to the semis

The US turned a close game into a rout, beating Slovenia 119-76 in the quarterfinals of the basketball World Cup. Klay Thompson scored 20 points and Kenneth Faried added 14 for the Americans, who will play Lithuania on Thursday in Barcelona for a spot in Sunday's gold-medal game in Madrid.

The Americans led by only five points early in the third quarter before tearing off a 27-10 run. James Harden and Stephen Curry finally got going after the All-Stars combined to miss all 12 shots in the first half.

Goran Dragic of the Phoenix Suns lead Slovenia with 13 points.

This US team has mostly been unchallenged in the tournament so far, but has still beaten opponents by 31.5 points a game. Against Slovenia, the US team shot poorly at the start, missing 21 shots in the first quarter, but still scored 15 second-chance points.

Zoran Dragic's three-pointer with 36 seconds remaining cut it to 49-42 at the break though.

Harden was 0 for 8 in the first half and Curry's fouls troubles gave Derrick Rose extra time to get his shot going. Rose has strugged badly in the tournament, his first action after missing most of the last two seasons following a pair of knee operations.

It took the US a while to get into the game, the feistiness of the Slovenians seemed to fire up the Americans, but Mike Krzyzewski's men ran away with it in the fourth quarter.

Earlier, Lithuania beat Turkey 73-61, with Renaldas Seibutis scoring 11 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter to send the reigning bronze medalists through. Turkey, the 2010 silver medalists, took the lead but lost their shooting touch and were outscored by Lithuania's substitutes 28-6 - Martynas Pocius adding 13 points off the bench for Lithuania.

jh/asz (dpa/AP)