FIBA World Championship Day 5

Atrocities continued in the 15^th FIBA World Basketball Championship when 12 teams competed on Thursday. South American powerhouse Argentina swept the eliminations by beating Asian qualifiers, Jordan. In another game, team USA continued its domination of the competition by crushing current Asian champions, Iran. In Group B on the other hand, Slovenia handed Brazil its second tough loss of the tournament.

Russia escapes China to barge into second round

It took Russia a 14-0 blast to finally beat Asian powerhouse China in FIBA day five.

Russia made a sizzling rally in the end to pull off an 89-80 victory, which gave them a ticket to the knockout stages of the championship. Meanwhile, China is on the verge of getting eliminated.

Russia’s Evgeny Voronov made a rim-rattling dunk to spark a 7-0 blitz for his team. After Voronov’s statement dunk, Sergey Monya made a clutch three-pointer that was followed by a Sergey Bykov layup.

It was a close game all throughout with both teams changing leads 18 times. The Russians eventually pushed the gas pedal to seal the deal. China was unable to mount a comeback after Russia had made its run. When the Chinese eventually made a shot, the game was already out of reach.

Turkey survives Puerto Rico to top group C

Turkey showed Puerto Rico how badly they wanted the game by getting the necessary stops and shots to earn a tough 79-77 victory in Group C.

With over two minutes remaining in the third quarter, Puerto Rico was up 53-45. Turkey then held Puerto Rico’s shooters scoreless for the next eight minutes.

With the Turks already firing all cylinders, NBA veteran Hedo Turkoglu buried a three-pointer to give Turkey its first double-digit advantage at 71-61.

Puerto Rico meanwhile didn’t want to go down without a fight as hotshot Angel Vassallo made two consecutive three-pointers in transition. It was followed by a Renaldo Balkman dunk, which made it a one-point game, 78-77.

However, Kerem Tunceri was fouled with less than 24 seconds to go and Puerto Rico in penalty. Tunceri missed one free throw, and when Puerto Rico secured the rebound, Vassallo’s last-second heave missed the rim completely.

With the win, Turkey remains unbeaten while finishing at the top of Group C. Puerto Rico, on the other hand, has a chance to advance, provided they beat Ivory Coast, and if China loses to Turkey.

New Zealand blasts Canada

New Zealand will be marching into the second round of FIBA for the third straight time after manhandling Canada, 71-61.

Kirk Penney led the Tall Blacks by scoring 18 points. Aside from him, New Zealand got a lot of help from Casey Frank and Phill Jones who had 14 and 11 points, respectively. Power forward Joel Anthony had 13 points and six rebounds, while Jevohn Shepherd had a breakout game by chipping in 15 points.

The game was pretty close in the first half with New Zealand protecting a precarious seven-point edge, 35-28. At the start of the second half, the Tall Blacks stepped on the gas to start a 7-1 run that was led by Lindsay Tait.

Canada inched closer to make it a tight affair after three quarters, 47-41. Eventually, Penney and Thomas Abercrombie coolly sank clutch shots to finally earn the victory.

Kristic helps Serbia win over Australia

After being suspended for his participation in a brawl in an exhibition game against Greece, Nenad Kristic played solid basketball to help Serbia gain an important win over Australia, 94-79.

With Kristic completing Serbia’s lineup, the team had more options at the offensive and defensive ends. Aside from him, Milos Teodosic and Novica Velickovic combined for 14 points to help Serbia take an early 16-14 lead.

In the second quarter, the Croatians got hot from the outside, making five out of ten shots beyond the arc to take a 47-37 lead at halftime.

In the third quarter, Croatia continued their sniping from the outside through dribble penetrations and quick kickouts to their shooters. Australia tried to come back in the final stanza through Brad Newley and Matt Nielsen. Then, Teodosic took charge again by hitting a three-pointer and making two free throws to finally ice the game for Serbia.

Angola gets an upset win over Germany

When everybody thought that Angola was just going to roll over and die in this tournament, they made an impossible overtime victory yesterday over Germany, 92-88.

Germany started quick by posting an early 15-8 lead after a 7-0 blast in the first quarter. However, Angola’s Olimpio Cipriano led the charge, helping his team tie the game at 19 after ten minutes.

In the second quarter, the Angolans carried their momentum to take a five-point cushion before the buzzer ended. Veteran Miguel Lutonda contributed heavily by scoring eight points.

In the third canto, the Germans made a mini-rally courtesy of Tim Ohlbrecht and Heiko Schffartzik to cut Angola’s lead down to four, 58-54.

In the final quarter, Germany made a blistering 8-0 run to take command of the game, 62-58. However, Angola made a furious comeback when Felizardo Ambrosio hit a three and Cipriano added two more free throws to tie the game at 78.

With 16 ticks left, Schffartzik missed a jump shot that could have won the game for Germany. In the overtime period, Cipriano and Ambrosio hit crucial free throws to finally help Angola get their second win of the tournament.

With the win, Angola is on the verge of breaking into the second round for the first time. Cipriano led all scorers with 30 points, 22 of them from the second half.

Argentina sweeps Group A by beating Jordan

Powerhouse Argentina continues its domination by beating Asian qualifiers Jordan, 88-79. However, it wasn’t as easy as many thought it would be, because Jordan challenged Argentina every step of the way.

The Argentines dominated the first quarter with Luis Scola and Carlos Delfino scoring 15 and 12 points respectively, to give Argentina a 35-19 bubble.

In the second quarter though, Jordan used a 3-2 zone defense to contain Scola, who had been wreaking havoc in the middle. As a result, Jordan was able to notch seven unanswered points to cut Argentina’s lead down to 12, 49-37.

The third quarter saw Jordan’s Ayman Idais and Rasheim Wright nail three-pointers to cut down Argentina’s lead to six, 55-49. However, Luis Cequeira and Juan Gutierrez answered back to give Argentina enough breathing room.

Jordan tried to make a comeback, but Scola, Delfino and Paolo Quinteros made cold-blooded shots to seal the deal for their squad. Scola had another big game as he reached the 30-point mark for the third straight time. Delfino and Quinteros had 18 and 11 points, respectively.

Croatia crushes hapless Tunisia

Marko Popovic was on fire all night long as Croatia hammered Tunisia from start to finish. In the end, the European qualifier was just too much as they rolled past Tunisia, 84-64.

Tunisia was doing well in the early goings before Popovic started getting hot. He drained three triples in the first quarter to give his team a 23-10 lead.

In the second quarter, Bojan Bogdanovic and Kresimir Loncar started sizzling from the three-point line to stretch Croatia’s lead to 20 points, 43-23.

There was very little resistance from Tunisia as Croatia cruised to an easy victory. The Croatians will be facing Brazil to determine whether or not they will advance to the second round.

USA routs Iran

After a tough game against Brazil yesterday, the United States took a break of sorts today with a complete shutout of Iran, 88-51.

With the win, the Americans stay undefeated while topping Group B after the first round. Iran on the other hand, dropped to 1-3 and is already out of the running for the knockout stage.

Iran had a good start courtesy of Mahdi Kamrani’s heroics. At the end of the first quarter, the Iranians were down by only six, 19-13.

In the second quarter, the Americans started to pull away by shooting and dominating every aspect of the game. Going into halftime, they already had a 14-point cushion.

Iran was playing like a team with nothing to lose. In spite of their crisp passing and superb team play, the USA’s skill level and talent were just too much to match for the Asian champions.

Slovenia hammers out a win over Brazil

Brazil was on the verge of erasing a once-mighty 17-point Slovenian lead late in the fourth quarter. However, Slovenia’s captain Jaka Lakovic made one big play after another, preventing the Brazilians to get a come-from-behind victory.

Lakovic’s back-to-back threes broke Brazil’s back to help Slovenia earn a tough 80-77 win. Brazil, who has lost a heartbreaking game against the USA yesterday, has lost two in a row already.

Slovenia already built a 34-18 advantage back in the second quarter and was looking to break the game wide open. However, the Brazilians mounted a furious comeback led by Marcelo Machado and Nezinho.

With 9:25 remaining in the game, Slovenia was comfortably ahead 70-53. Machado once again started the rally by hitting two straight threes and a steal that resulted in a Leandro Barbosa breakaway layup.

With Slovenia’s lead down to nine at 70-61, Machado made a crucial steal before hitting a cold-blooded three-pointer. Down by only four points, Tiago Splitter made a baby hook to cap a 15-0 Brazilian run.

Splitter had a chance to tie the game at 70, but Lakovic decided to go to work by nailing two straight three-balls to seal the deal for Slovenia.

Lithuania stops France

A relentless 33-12 run in the last 11 minutes gave Lithuania a hard-earned victory over giant-slaying France, 69-55.

With the win, Lithuania stays undefeated while staying on top of Group D after the eliminations.

In the third quarter, the men in green were led by Jonas Maciulus who scored 19 points. He was followed by Linas Kleiza, who chipped in 15 points while burying clutch threes from all corners of the court.

The game started close with both teams trading baskets. At the start of the second half, the Lithuanians started tightening up their defense, limiting France to just 31 points in the last three quarters.

For France, Nicolas Batum was the lone bright spot. He scored 13 points, most of them early in the game.

Greece obliterates Ivory Coast

Greece bounced back after an emotional loss against Turkey yesterday. The Greeks poured it on early on to cruise to an easy victory over an outmatched Ivory Coast squad, 97-60.

For Greece, all it took was a 27-5 blitzkrieg early in the second quarter to put the game out of hand for Ivory Coast.

Though the Ivorians were off to a flying start, the Greeks answered back with a 9-0 flurry courtesy of Konstantinos Tsartsaris and Vasillis Spanoulis. Aside from Spanoulis and Tsartsaris, Ioannis Bourousis and Antonios Fotsis contributed heavily to give the Greeks a 20-14 advantage after the first quarter.

When the second quarter started, it was all about Greece who scored 27 points while limiting their opponents to just five. Greece’s lead ballooned to 28 points at the end of the second quarter.

With Ivory Coast failing to mount any kind of comeback, Greece used its bench players extensively all throughout the second half.

Spain steamrolls over Lebanon

After two losses early in the tournament, defending champions Spain took care of a relatively easy assignment by trumping Asian qualifiers Lebanon, 91-57.

Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol dominated all game long by finishing with 25 points on top of eight rebounds. Lebanon’s naturalized center, Jackson Vroman led his team with 22 points and nine rebounds.

Early on, it looked like Lebanon was gunning for another upset win by taking a one-point lead at the end of the first quarter.

Unfortunately, Vroman was slapped with two straight fouls in the second quarter, sending him into foul trouble. With the Lebanese center on the bench, Spain made a 13-2 run to take a 43-32 lead going into the second half.

With momentum on their side, the Spaniards broke the game wide open in the second half with baskets from Jorge Garbajosa and Gasol. With the margin already at 34, Lebanon didn’t have anything left to make a serious rally.