Spain cruise to first gold

The Spaniards had promised to play the title match for injured power forward and NBA All-Star Gasol, who hobbled out of the tournament in tears after hurting his foot at the end of Spain's semi-final victory over Argentina, and the Iberians looked as though they would not have needed their leading scorer's presence had he been available.

Gasol, who averaged 21.3 points-per-game and 9.4 rebounds-per-game, was named the tournament MVP shortly after the victory, but his team-mates more than compensated for his absence from the final.

Jorge Garbajosa and Juan-Carlos Navarro led the Spanish onslaught with 20 points a piece, as the Iberians never trailed by more than 2 points and led from mid-way through the first quarter onwards.

"We played really well with an incredible intensity in defence," Navarro told Spanish television station La Sexta. "We wanted to win for Pau and we achieved that in the end."

Garbajosa, who has just signed with Jose Calderon's Toronto Raptors, went 6-for-11 from beyond the three-point line and Barcelona point guard Navarro shot 4-for-9 from three-point range.

But it was the Spanish defence, which prevented the Greek sharp-shooters from ever finding the rhythm that eliminated the tournament favourite United States, that led them to victory.

The Greeks shot a terrible 13-for-34 (38%) from inside the three-point line and an even worse 5-for-21 (24%) from beyond the arc.

Thanks to three treys from Garbajosa to start of the second quarter, Spain went on a 17-4 run to take control of the game early in the period.

The Spaniards' margin was 20 points at half-time and they never led by less than 17 points thereafter.

Greece had no answer on offence, as their star attraction against the States, Sofoklis "Baby Shaq" Schortsianitis, was shutdown with only 2 points in 7 minutes of play.

Michail Kakiouzis was the leading scorer for Greece, but a team that is used to seeing all of its members contributing on offence were held to 13 points in their highest period of scoring, a throw-away fourth quarter in which the Spaniards still outscored them.

Spain, who have won 18 straight games including a series of 9 pre-tournament victories, earn their first medal at a FIBA world championship.

Their closest previous effort was a 119-117 loss to Yugoslavia in the 1982 bronze-medal match.

"It has been fantastic," gushed Spain coach Pepu Hernandez. "It was a great performance and experience and now we are world champions."

It was a game fraught with emotion for Hernandez, whose father passed away on the eve of the game.

"Pepu's father died the night before the game and it was a big blow for him," Spanish basketball federation president Jose Luis Saez said.

"No one knew anything about it. It has been a very difficult time for him."