Title hopes dashed as USA lose again

The United States suffered their second humiliating defeat in a row on Thursday, losing 81-78 to Yugoslavia in the quarter-fianls of the World Basketball Championships. At best the hosts can now walk away with no better than fifth place from Friday's classification games.

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The victory puts the defending world champion Yugoslavians into Saturday's semi-finals against New Zealand, 65-63 winners over Puerto Rico in another quarter-final game.

It has been a stunning turnaround for the Americans, who lost for the first time in 10 years and 58 international games when using NBA players on Wednesday to Argentina. The two upsets came after the U.S. won its first five games at the tournament.

What was perhaps more stunning on Thursday was the crowd at Conseco Fieldhouse, which was once again relatively sparse and featured louder cheers from the large contingent of Argentinean fans than for the home team in the early going.

Perhaps rattled, the Americans fell behind 9-0 before they could get untracked. The teams were tied 20-20 after one quarter and Yugoslavia led 40-36 at halftime. The U.S. rallied to lead after three quarters, but Yugoslavia dominated late in the fourth quarter to take the lead again, 72-71, with l:30 to play, and hung on for the victory.

In other quarter-final action, Dirk Nowitzki had 20 points and eight rebounds to lead Germany past Spain 70-62, putting the Germans into the semi-finals for the first time.

Germany led 40-31 at the half, only to see Spain go on a 21-6 run to lead by six heading into the fourth quarter. But the Germans slowly chipped away at the lead and stiffened on defense, allowing just 10 points in the final 10 minutes.

Marko Pesic added 14 points for the winners, while Ademola Okulaja added 11 points and eight rebounds. Juan Carlos Navarro had 21 points for Spain, which shot just 31 percent from the field. Pau Gasol added 14 points for the losers.

Argentina stayed unbeaten at the tournament, downing Brazil 78-67 to set up a semi-final match-up with the Germans.

Brazil led the game 39-36 halfway through the third quarter as Argentina appeared sluggish after Wednesday's heroics. But a 15-3 run at the end of the third quarter made it 51-42 and Argentina increased its lead to 16 points in the fourth quarter before coasting to the win.

Fabricio Oberto and Emanuel Ginobili both had 19 points to lead Argentina. Andres Nocinoi added 16 points, with five Argentina players hitting double-digits. Vanderlei Mazzuchini had 20 points for Brazil, while Marcelo Machado added 14 points.