FIBA World Cup Day 5: Croatia On The Bubble
By Phil Watson
Group A at Granada
Spain 88, France 64
The hosts clinched the top seed coming out of Group A with a workmanlike blowout of France.
Spain (4-0) pulled away in the second quarter to lead 44-34 at the half and just continued to increase its lead throughout the second half.
Marc Gasol of the Memphis Grizzlies finished with 17 points and three steals for the Spaniards. Pau Gasol of the Chicago Bulls added 15 points and two blocked shots, Juan Carlos Navarro scored 14 points, Sergio Llull tossed in 10 points to go with four assists and Serge Ibaka of the Oklahoma City Thunder went for 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocks. Ricky Rubio of the Minnesota Timberwolves had five assists, three steals and four points.
Nicolas Batum of the Portland Trail Blazers and Antoine Diot scored 11 points each for France. Florent Pietrus had eight rebounds to go with three points.
France turned the ball over 15 times to just eight for Spain and shot 27-for-69 (39.1 percent) overall and 5-for-25 (20 percent) from deep, compared to 32-for-63 (50.8 percent) and 6-for-23 (26.1 percent) for Spain.
The Spaniards also enjoyed an 18-5 edge in made free throws and a 22-8 advantage in attempts.
France (2-2) must beat Iran in its final group game on Thursday to reach the elimination round.
Iran 88, Egypt 73
Iran kept itself in contention for a spot in the elimination round by beating Egypt on Thursday, setting up a showdown with France for the final spot in Group A on Thursday.
Iran (1-3) took a 27-15 lead after one quarter and then held on the rest of the way against the Egyptians (0-4), who cannot advance.
The two-headed monster of Samad Nikkhah Bahrami and Hamed Haddadi was too much for Egypt to handle. Nikkhah Bahrami scored 24 points to go with six assists and three steals and Haddadi went for 23 points, 15 rebounds and two blocked shots.
Oshin Sahakian had 14 points for Iran and Hamed Afagh added 12.
Youssef Shousha led Egypt with 15 points and blocked two shots. Mouhanad El-Sabagh added 13 points and Ibrahim El-Gammal added 10. Haytham Kamal led the Egyptians with five rebounds and scored two points.
Iran had a 41-32 edge on the glass and shot 50 percent (35-for-70). Egypt shot just 41.7 percent (25-for-60).
Brazil 81, Serbia 73
Brazil will be the No. 2 seed coming out of Group A after beating Serbia, using a big fourth-quarter to come from behind for the win.
It was a tale of two quarters for the teams—Brazil led 48-32 at halftime, only to have Serbia go nuts in the third quarter and take a 64-60 lead into the fourth.
It was Brazil’s turn in the final period.
Serbia tied the game with 3:19 to go in the third quarter on a pair of free throws by Miroslav Raduljica and took the lead with 1:10 left in the period on two more free throws, these by Nemanja Bjelica.
Nenad Krstic hit a pair from the stripe with 10 seconds left to but the Serbians up 64-60 entering the fourth.
It took almost a minute and a half, but someone finally scored in the fourth period when Marko Simonovic drained a 3-pointer to put Serbia ahead 67-60.
Brazil ran off 12 straight points, capped by Tiago Splitter’s layup with 2:43 remaining, to take a 72-67 lead and cruised home from there.
Marcus Vieira had 21 points to pace Brazil (3-1), Leandro Barbosa of the Golden State Warriors added 16 points and Splitter, of the San Antonio Spurs, finished with 10 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Anderson Varejao of the Cleveland Cavaliers grabbed nine rebounds to go with four points and Nene Hilario of the Washington Wizards blocked two shots and scored seven points.
Milos Teodosic finished with 14 points and five assists for Serbia. Raduljica had 11 points and five rebounds and Stefan Markovic scored 10 points. Bjelica also had five boards.
Serbia (2-2) will advance to the elimination round.
Group A Standings (with point differential)
x-Spain 4-0 (+110)
x-Brazil 3-1 (+20)
France 2-2 (+14)
x-Serbia 2-2 (+25)
Iran 1-3 (-57)
Egypt 0-4 (-112)
top four teams advance, x-indicates clinched spot in round of 16
Thursday in Group A
Brazil vs. Egypt, 9:30 a.m.
Iran vs. France, noon
Serbia vs. Spain, 4 p.m.