Serbia runs past Canada 95-86 and reaches the gold medal game at the Basketball World Cup

No Nikola Jokic, no problem. Even with its best player sitting out this summer, Serbia is going to play for gold at the Basketball World Cup.

Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 23 points and Serbia defeated Canada 95-86 in the World Cup semifinals on Friday. Ognjen Dobric and Nikola Milutinov each scored 16 for Serbia, the best-shooting team so far in the tournament — making 55% of its shots coming into the day, then connecting on 62% to end Canada’s hopes of gold.

“It doesn’t matter who’s not here,” Serbia’s Marko Guduric said. “It’s all about this group of guys, whoever is here, whoever is wearing this Serbian jersey. We never give up. We fight until the end. It’s in our blood.”

Serbia (6-1) is in the World Cup final for the second time in the last three tournaments. It lost to the U.S. in the 2014 final, and will face either the Americans or Germany on Sunday night in the title game at Manila.

“Nobody believed but we didn’t care about anybody,” Serbia forward Filip Petrusev said. “We just had fun with each other. It’s a great group of guys, great chemistry, and when you have good chemistry and great players, anything can happen. We believed and we’re here.”

RJ Barrett scored 23 for Canada (5-2), which was bidding to make the World Cup final for the first time. It’ll face the Germany-U.S. loser for the bronze on Sunday, when the Canadians will try for their most significant international medal since winning silver at the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

“Credit to Serbia. They played a great game,” Barrett said. “They played hard, they played physical, they’re very well-coached and disciplined. Got to give them credit for that.”

Image: AP