Kirilenko's 18 points leads Russia to bronze medal

KAUNAS, Lithuania -- Aleksey Shved scored the last four points of the game to give Russia the bronze medal at the European basketball championship with a 72-68 victory over Macedonia on Sunday.

The shooting guard sank a short jumper with 27 seconds left and then made two free throws after Macedonia's Damjan Stojanovski missed an open short jumper with seven seconds left. Andrei Kirilenko grabbed the rebound and Shved was fouled to make the free throws.

"It was not a game of skill, but of will and fight," said Kirilenko, who had 18 points and seven rebounds for Russia.

In the gold medal game, defending champion Spain played France later Sunday.

Macedonia has been the surprise team of the tournament and came close to pulling off another upset. But Russia's deeper bench and dominance on the boards won the game.

Russia had 43 rebounds to Macedonia's 25. The 22 offensive rebounds allowed Russia to score 30 second-chance points.

"I guess this is the end of the fairy tale," Macedonia center Predrag Samardziski said.

"We fought hard the whole tournament and we wanted the bronze, but it didn't happen. Now, everybody knows us, we are a small country but they have to fight hard to beat us."

American-born guard Bo McCalebb led Macedonia with 22. McCalebb fed Stojanovski on Macedonia's last missed play and looked deeply disappointed at the final buzzer.

Russia won the tournament in 2007.