Germany will play the United States in the semi-finals of the Basketball World Cup, a rematch of an exhibition matchup from earlier this summer when the Americans needed a big rally to win.

Franz Wagner scored 16 points as Germany – the last unbeaten team left in the World Cup – held off Latvia 81-79 in their quarter-final game on Wednesday.

The Germans pulled away in the fourth quarter of what had been a back-and-forth matchup for the first 30 minutes.

Next up for the Germans will be the US on Friday for a spot in Sunday’s gold medal game.

The US beat Germany 99-91 on August 20 in Abu Dhabi, rallying from a 16-point second-half deficit and needing an 18-0 run down the stretch to take control.

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That game was a scrimmage and meaningless as it was the final tune-up before the World Cup. Friday’s game will be very different.

Andreas Obst scored 13 for Germany, which survived on a night where Dennis Schroder was four from 26 from the floor.

Arturs Zagars scored 24 and Davis Bertans scored 20 for Latvia.

With the win, Germany is assured of no worse than its second-best finish in basketball’s top two international events – the World Cup and the Olympics.

The Germans were third in the 2002 world championships, an event now called the World Cup, and have never placed better than seventh at an Olympics.

Latvia can still finish as high as fifth in its first World Cup appearance.

It takes on Italy in Thursday’s consolation playoffs, then play for either fifth or seventh place on Saturday.

The Americans rolled past Italy 100-63 in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.

They took Wednesday off but will resume practice on Thursday, fully aware of the challenge Germany posed them about three weeks ago.

-AP