Argentina extended its unbeaten run to seven games after overwhelming Tuesday Turkey 83-58 at the World Men's Basketball Championships in Saitama, Japan.

The Athens Olympic champion set up a semi-final meeting with Spain, who slashed down Lithuania 89-67 in the earlier match.

The two teams had two warm-up matches in the Singapore Cup when Spain won both by big margins.

Argentina rested top star Manu Ginobili for most of the game as it built up a 20-point lead midway before the break.

Ginobili finished with seven points in 16:17 minutes when Andres Nicioni led Argentina with 21 points and six rebounds in 18:12 minutes.

"We played the best game in the WC tonight," said Argentina's coach Sergio hernandez.

Cenk Akyol had 11 points and Serkan Erdogan 10 points for Turkey, who trailed 43-23 in the first half.

Argentina easily extended the lead to as many as 36 points in the third quarter before it pitched on the second-string lineup inmost of the 4th.

Pau Gasol chipped in 25 points and nine rebounds while Carlos Navarro contributing 22 for Spain, who led all the way for the victory.

Lithuania was held to scoreless in 5:38 minutes through second quarter when Spain used a 15-0 run to put the game beyond doubt.

Darius Songaila led Lithuania with 17 points, while Linas Kleiza had an all-round game with 15 points, 14 rebounds and five assists.

But the 28 turnovers betrayed Lithuanians' efforts as Spain produced 17 steals compared to the modest three from Lithuania.

The United States will meet Germany and Greece to face France in the other quarter-final matches on Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2006)