Serbia & Montenegro finally got what they have worked so hard for over the past two days – a comfortable 82-67 win over Latvia to stay alive in the competition and a standing ovation from the Novi Sad crowd to go along with it.

The hosts came into this game knowing a loss would mean elimination from the competition.

Latvia face their toughest challenge of EuroBasket preliminary round play on Sunday as they need nothing less than to defeat Serbia & Montenegro on their own court to challenge for a place in an elimination game.

Heroic displays by Sandis Valters and Kristaps Janicenoks weren’t enough to prevent Latvia from losing to group leaders Spain in a heartbreaking 114-109 overtime game.

If anyone still doubted whether the Spanish national team could play well without Pau Gasol, they got the answer from Juan Carlos Navarro and Jorge Garbajosa tonight in a 114-109 overtime win over Latvia.

Navarro scored 35 points and Garbajosa added 31, both of them spending considerable amount of time at the free-throw line as Spain made 51 of 63 foul shots.

Latvia was, without any doubt, the biggest surprise of EuroBasket 2001 after reaching the quarterfinals with a game based on deadly outside shooting. Two years later, the Latvians came close to putting together another upset. Despite the retirement of sharpshooter Ainars Bagatskis, the Baltic side will be, once again, a very dangerous underdog.