Serbia men's basketball team edges past Australia in Olympic overtime thriller

PARIS, Aug 6 (Tanjug) - Serbia is through to the semi-finals of the men's basketball tournament at the Paris Olympics after a 95-90 overtime win against Australia on Tuesday.

Australia got off to a much better start to the encounter and, midway through the first half, Serbia was trailing by 24 points, yet managed to win the game, which ended 82-82 in regular time.

With 25 seconds to go in overtime, Nikola Jokic handed Serbia a three-point lead (93-90) and Australia failed to score, after which Bogdan Bogdanovic converted two free throws to make it 95-90 seal the win for Serbia.

Jokic led Serbia with 21 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists and was followed by Bogdanovic with 17 points, Vasilije Micic with 14, Marko Guduric and Ognjen Dobric with 11 points each and Aleksa Avramovic with 10.

Patty Mills stood out for Australia with 26 points, Josh Giddey scored 22 points while Jack McVeigh added 13.

Serbia was without Nikola Jovic, who was sidelined with a cold.