Serbia used a strong second-half performance to beat Spain 56-55 for a second time in the last four days to dethrone the defending champions in the final at a packed Melina Merkoyri Stadium in Rethimnon tonight.

The result means this is Serbia’s first European title at the U16 level as the independent state of Serbia.

Serbia centre Dejan Musli, who led his team to the title with a win over Spain in the final of the Termosteps U16 European Championship Men in Crete, was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

The 212cm centre averaged just under 16 points a game and was the tournament’s leader in rebounds (12.0) as well as blocked shots (5.0).

Lithuania didn’t let their double-digit lead slip away completely as they had done a night before against Serbia and instead held on to beat Turkey 65-55 and claim the bronze medal in Rethimnon tonight.

The game was close in the first half but Lithuania used a 14-1 run spanning the end of the third quarter and the start of the final period to go up by 15, 56-41 before holding off a late rally by Turkey to win their first medal in this competition.

Jota Cuspinera will bid to win a second U16 European Championship title in a row when the defending champions Spain face Serbia in tonight’s final.

Regardless of the outcome of the game, he believes his team has done very well to get to the title game.

Spain will have a chance to defend their title after coming back from a 12-point half time deficit to beat Turkey 81-75 in Rethimnon tonight and earn their place in the final.

The defending champions trailed 50-38 at the break, but turned things around in the second half thanks to their full-court press defense to beat Mustafa Derin’s men.

Serbia will look to dethrone defending champions Spain in the final after using a strong fourth quarter to overcome Lithuania 74-64 in the second semi-final in Rethimnon tonight.

Dragan Vaskcanin’s men outscored Lithuania 32-12 over the game’s last 16 minutes to ensure a better result than their third place finish in the competition last year.

Whether as part of Yugoslavia or as Serbia & Montenegro, Serbia has always had a rich basketball tradition.

From the 1980's up until the early 2000's, success in the U16 European Championship was almost a habit for the southeastern European state.

Lithuania crushed Croatia 92-58 to secure their place in the competition’s semi-finals tonight in Rethimnon.

Gilvydas Birutas had 21 points as Marius Linartas’ side led from start to finish and will now face Serbia in Saturday’s semi-final.

Serbia beat Spain 59-48 in Rethimnon tonight in what might be a preview of Sunday’s final.

The result means that Serbia finished undefeated to top Group E and will face Lithuania in one of Saturday’s semi-final while the other will be a match-up of the last two champions in this competition, Spain and Turkey.

Turkey recovered from a poor shooting start and a big double-digit deficit to defeat Greece 64-54, sending the hosts to their second loss in a row and eliminating them from semi-final contention.

The 2005 champions were an abysmal four of 21 (19%) from the field in the first 14 minutes of the game while Greece were a much more impressive 14 of 23 (61%) as they raced to a 30-11 lead early in the second quarter.

France beat Georgia 65-58 to secure third place in Group E of the qualifying round and guarantee that they will finish in the top eight.

Leo Westermann had 13 points and eight rebounds as Tahar Assed Liegeon’s men were in control for the better part of the game and, even though they gave up a double-digit lead late in the game, Georgia’s inexperience proved costly as France edged them out.