Milos Teodosic once more showed his importance for Serbia with 16 points and 4 assists as well as 4 rebounds and 3 steals

Serbia underlined their status as one of the best sides in international basketball by knocking Argentina from the ranks of the unbeaten on the last day of Preliminary Round play at the FIBA World Championship.

Dusan Ivkovic's men beat Argentina 84-82 in Kayseri to claim top spot and set up a clash with European rivals Croatia, who lost to Brazil in Group B on Thursday night.

The hero for Serbia was Dusko Savanovic.

The Cajasol Sevilla star poured in a team-high 19 points and hit a key three-ball with 18 seconds remaining to snap a 77-77 tie and put Serbia in front to stay.

Serbia coach Dusan Ivkovic said: "We have been watching Argentina for 10 years trying to learn. Today, I think, we taught them something."

Germany didn't advance to the next last round but they won for the second time, beating Jordan in Group A 91-73 to clinch fifth place ahead of Mario Palma's team.

Slovenia, who had already clinched second place in Group B with Tuesday's triumph over Brazil, defeated Iran 65-60.

Looking ahead to their Eight-Finals meeting with the Boomers, Slovenia captain Jaka Lakovic said: "They are a very physical team and they have great players. It's going to be a very difficult test for us."

Brazil built a 25-point lead against Croatia in the third quarter and kept the pressure on in the fourth before winning 92-74 to finish third in Group B.

Croatia coach Josip Vrankovic said: "We didn't play a good first half, we played too soft. We had a problem with defense. If you play like this against Brazil, you will lose as was our case.

In Group C, Russia beat Greece 73-69 to clinch second place with the Greeks settling for third.

David Blatt, who announced earlier this week this is his last tournament as Russia coach, said: "Our players have great pride and desire to play hard and get better every day.

Timofey Mozgov was terrorising the Greek paint, pouring in 18 points in just 19 minutes

"They don't have the big contracts of other players, but they want to play every game and do their best. They try their best and that's showing respect for the game.

"Experience counts for a lot. We don't have much of it but one thing we do have is heart and we will keep playing our hearts out in this tournament."

Turkey rolled to a fifth straight win by beating China, 87-40.

China - who were assured of a place in the next round where they will face Lithuania after Ivory Coast beat Puerto Rico 88-79 - used this game to rest their star players and starters allowing for the bench players to get some extensive playing time.
Russia will face New Zealand after the Tall Blacks beat France by 12 points to climb into third spot in Group D.

France had won their first two games of the tournament and looked primed for at least a top-two finish but after falling to Lithuania on Wednesday they collapsed against New Zealand, losing 82-70.

Spain, New Zealand and France all finished with 3-2 records but since the French had a worse goal differential in the meetings between the three sides, they plummeted to fourth place with the Spanish second.

That meant that France will now have to go up against Turkey in the Eight-Finals, while Spain will face Greece.

France were in the driving seat in the final 20 seconds but Nicolas Batum fouled Kirk Penney, just as the tournament's leading scorer was making a shot from behind the arc.

Penney sank the free-throw for a four-point play.

After Yannick Bokolo sank two free-throws for France, Vincent Collet's side allowed Tall Black youngster Thomas Abercrombie to bank in a three-pointer from the left to give New Zealand a 12-point advantage with six seconds remaining.

Batum tried to hit a three-ball at the buzzer but it rimmed out and that left France facing an Eight-Finals game against Turkey.

"We wanted to lose by 11 or less to avoid Turkey, but even that we couldn't do, by not doing the foul on the last possession," Collet said.

"We got what we deserved."

Spain guard Juan Carlos Navarro sat out the game against Canada with an injury but his team won 89-67.

Lithuania had already clinched first place in Group D.

They rolled to victory against Lebanon, 84-66, and will face China in the Eight-Finals.