World champion Spain has beaten Serbia 85-63 in the final to win the European basketball championship.

The victory gives Spain its first ever European title after six runner-up finishes.

Spain dominated from start to finish on both ends of the court on Sunday, taking a 15-point lead in the first quarter with a smothering defensive performance.

The Spaniards continued to harass a young Serbia team, and pushed the tempo on the break to extend their lead to 23 points by halftime. Serbia would never recover.

Los Angeles Lakers center Pau Gasol scored 18 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to lead Spain, while guard Rudy Fernandez chipped in with 13 points.

Uros Tripkovic scored 15 points for Serbia.

Center Sofoklis Schortsanitis came off the bench to score 23 points and lead Greece to a 57-56 victory over Slovenia in the bronze medal game at the European basketball championship yesterday.

In a hard-nosed defensive struggle, Greece used a 14-0 run in the first half to open a 10-point gap and hung on in the closing seconds to win the bronze two years after finishing fourth at the tournament.

Slovenia closed the Greek lead to just one point in the fourth quarter on a free throw from centre Erazem Lorbek, but could never pull even despite a handful of chances.

Earlier yesterday, France beat Croatia 69-62 behind 18 points from Antoine Diot in the fifth-place game.

Both teams had already qualified for next year’s world championship in Turkey and were only playing to determine the final placings. The coaches of both France and Croatia rested their top stars, and gave their younger players a chance to play.

Also, guard Vitalii Fridzon scored 26 points to lead Russia past Turkey 89-66 for seventh place at the tournament.