Australia, Spain through to semis in men's basketball

The first two quarter-final matches of the men's basketball tournament on Wednesday were not so excited as expected at the Rio Olympic Games.

Australia had no trouble to trounce Lithuania 90-64 as Lithuania finished the Rio trip with three consecutive losses, while Spain led all the way to crush France 92-67 for another berth in semis.

After winning the first three games, the European runners-up Lithuania lost 109-59 to Spain and 90-81 to Croatia.

Wednesday's loss was another prove that Lithuania were stuck in trouble, but none of the coaches or players wanted to talk about it.

Australia buried eight three-pointers in the first half to open an over 20-point lead and extended the gap in every quarter. Patty Mills returned from injury to score 24 points to lead Australia.

In another match, European champions Spain also had an easy win over France, who never made any real challeng to the old rivals.

Spain led the first quarter by 19-16 when both teams were ready for an intense battle throughout the game.

Nicola Mirotic from Chicago Bulls came out to score 16 out of his 24 points in the first half, including five three-pointers during the span, to give Spain a 43-30 lead.

Toni Parker, who did not play last game, scored 14 points and delivered four assists, which were not enough to help France recover.

France shot just 18-out-of-48 in the field when Spain were 25-out-of-39. Endit