MUNICH, Germany -- Italy's Buckler Bologna and Spanish giant Real Madrid won their opening games Thursday night and moved into the semifinals of the 6th McDonalds Open international basketball tournament.
Bologna hammered South American champion All Star Franca, 129-88, while Madrid survived a comeback bid by Germany's Bayer Leverkusen, 85- 75.
In Friday's semifinals, Madrid will take on the No. 1 seed and 1993 NBA finalist Phoenix Suns. The Suns will be trying to continue the perfect NBA team record at the tournament, set up in 1987 by the NBA and the world governing body FIBA.
Bologna will take on second-seeded European Champion Limoges of France. The championship game will be played Saturday.
The Suns and Limoges had a bye in the first round of the tournament, which was increased from four to six teams this year so that a South American club could be included.
But it was a disastrous night for the seven-time continental and eight-time national champ Franca, which arrived in Munich Tuesday night after a 48-hour oddesy due to an airline strike in the French capital.
'I'm not looking for excuses, we have never played so bad. The tournament is rated very high in Brazil, some obviously didn't understand that today,' said an angry Franca star Dexter Shouse, who led his side's scoring with 21 points.
The 11-time Italian champion dominated from the start and built a 32- 12 lead after the first 12 minutes. Franca shot 25 percent from two- point range, was outrebounded defensively, 11-5, and commited eight turnovers.
'The way we started out aggressively on defense, we were able to control the game,' said Bologna's coach Alberto Bucci.
Yugoslav guard Predrag Danilovic led Bologna with 27 points and forward Paulo Moretti had 25 points.
In the second game, Leverkusen rallied from an early 19-3 deficit to a 45-42 halftime lead against 26-time national and seven-time European champ Madrid. But Madrid rallied in front of crowd of only 4,300.
Leverkusen was helped by early foul-trouble of Madrid's Lithuanian center Arvidas Sabonis, who helped his home country to a 1992 Olympic bronze in Barcelona.
The 7-2 Sabonis sat out most of the second quarter because of three fouls, but returned for the entire second half to lead his team with 21 points plus 15 rebounds and three blocked shots.
