Australian Boomers to face Spain in FIBA World Cup semi-final

The Australian Boomers, who have the chance to book a place in the gold medal game, took an 82-70 victory over the Czech Republic in the quarter-final in China.

They earned the opportunity to take on Spain in China's capital, Beijing, on Friday.

Patty Mills top-scored for the national team with 24 points while Chris Goulding added 14 of his own.

Coach Andrej Lemanis said his team played well after a sluggish start.

"Czech Republic is a good basketball team and we have a lot of respect for the way they have played this tournament, they've been great," he said.

"I thought with their switching defences caused us to be a little anxious early.

"It took us a while to find our rhythm offensively, but once we did, I thought we did a nice job of starting to penalise it and get the looks that we wanted."

The Boomers mentor said the team's focus had switched to Friday's semi-final.

"One of the first things I heard when we walked back into the locker room was guys saying, 'the jobs not done yet, jobs not done yet,' so I think the focus is there, we just need to prepare for Spain as we prepare for everybody else," Lemanis said.

While Sobey didn't play in the quarter-final, he has had minutes in his team's six-straight tournament wins.

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The 29-year-old played Canada in the first round and got a bucket against Dominican Republic in the second round.

Meanwhile, France caused the upset of the tournament, defeating Team USA 89-79 in its quarter-final.

It means Team USA is out of gold medal contention.

France's next assignment is Argentina in a semi-final.

The Aussies took a thrilling 100-98 win over the French in a second round encounter during the tournament.

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