FIBA World Cup 2019: Day 1 takeaways, Day 2 look-ahead
By Phil Watson
Nigeria could rue late collapse
At Wuhan, Nigeria — ranked just 33rd in the FIBA World Rankings heading into the FIBA World Cup — was a dark-horse pick by some to get out of Group B along with favored Argentina, in part because of the injury woes Russia had in putting a roster together for the event.
Alexey Shved and Dmitry Kulagin, two of Russia’s veterans, are out of the FIBA World Cup. Shved has a foot injury and Kulagin, Russia’s best player in qualifying, had surgery to repair detached retinas — yes, plural — and that left Russia uncertain as to its prospects.
Josh Okogie of the Minnesota Timberwolves canned a 3-pointer to put Nigeria up 71-63 with 5:44 to go, but the team collapsed late under the weight of its own miscues and poor decisions.
The Nigerian squad misfired on six straight shots and committed three turnovers over a span of 4:24 as Russia went on a 12-2 run to take a 75-73 lead. Al-Farouq Aminu of the Orlando Magic finally broke the drought with an inside bucket with 1:20 to go.
But Okogie fouled Mikhail Kulagin with 31 seconds left, with Kulagin hitting a pair of free throws to give Russia the lead for good. After Jordan Nwora missed a layup with 13 seconds left, Nigeria went to the foul game and Russia hit 5-of-6 down the stretch to put the game away.
Mikhail Kulagin was just 4-for-14 from the floor — Russia made only 43 percent on the night but was 11-for-27 from deep — but led the Russians with 16 points, while Andrey Vorontsevich added 14 points before foiling out late.
Okogie paced Nigeria with 18 points and four assists, but also committed five of their 21 turnovers.
In the nightcap at Wuhan, 39-year-old Luis Scola got the cheers (he’s been in the Chinese Basketball Association the last two seasons), but it was point guard Facundo Campazzo who set the tone for Argentina in their 95-69 blowout of Korea.
Campazzo hit back-to-back 3-pointers during a 13-0 run in the second quarter that allowed Argentina to pull away from the stubborn Koreans for good.
Nicolas Laprovittola led Argentina with 17 points, while Scola — the last active link to Argentina’s gold-medal winning squad at the 2004 Athens Olympics — went for 15 points and nine rebounds in 21 minutes.
Argentina was on fire from deep, going 17-for-31 (54.8 percent) from 3-point range, but shot just 42.9 percent overall.
But Korea hit just 31.9 percent of its attempts, led by Guna Ra — a naturalized South Korean citizen from the U.S. once known as Ricardo Ratliffe — scored 31 points with 15 rebounds.
On Monday, Nigeria will face a huge challenge against Argentina in the 4:30 a.m. Eastern game, with Korea and Russia battling in the 8:30 a.m. Eastern nightcap.