Serbia beats France, will play U.S. for World Cup basketball title

Milos Teodosic scored 24 points and Serbia reached the championship game of the Basketball World Cup by beating France, 90-85, on Friday night.

The Serbians will face the defending champion and unbeaten U.S. on Sunday.

Teodosic helped Serbia lead by as much as 18, but Nicolas Batum of the Portland Trail Blazers nearly brought the French all the way back, finishing with 35 points.

Boris Diaw of the San Antonio Spurs added 13 for France, which will play Lithuania on Saturday for the bronze medal.

The French upset Spain the quarterfinals, ending the expected gold-medal matchup between the Spanish and Americans. But the European champions got off to a slow start that couldn’t be overcome even with their huge fourth quarter.