FIBA World Cup: 2nd round taking shape; Day 3 takeaways

Group B all about positioning now

At Wuhan, the competitive phase of Group B ended on Wednesday as Argentina and Russia improved to 2-0, with Korea and Nigeria falling to 0-2 and heading for the classification round.

Now Argentina and Russia will face each other on Wednesday looking to advance to Group I in the second round with a perfect 3-0 record. Group I will be played in Foshan, with Argentina and Russia to be joined by Poland and either China or Venezuela from Group A.

The records from Round 1 will carry over to the next round, so Wednesday’s matchup between Russia and Argentina still has significance.

Russia took an early lead against Korea on Monday before the Koreans dug in to get to within 40-37 at halftime. But Russia put the game away with a big third quarter. Korea turned the ball over 15 times and was outrebounded 39-34, giving up a 15-10 edge to the Russians in points off mistakes and a 14-6 bulge in second-chance points.

Korea’s good shooting from inside the arc couldn’t overcome those problems against Russia, which never trailed in the game and led by as much as 18 points.

Andrey Vorontsevich and Vitaly Fridzon led a balanced Russian attack with 13 points each, with Vorontsevich getting seven rebounds, while Nikita Kurbanov finished with nine assists and seven boards. Fridzon added three steals and Andrey Zubkov blocked three shots while scoring 11 points.

Russia shot 47.8 percent overall (32-for-67) and was 7-for-20 (35 percent) from 3-point range, to Korea’s 42.4 percent (25-for-59) and 8-for-26 (30.8 percent) marks.

Guna Ra went for 19 points and 10 rebounds for Korea, while Daesung Lee added 17 points and Junghyun Lee handed out five assists.

In the opener, Nigeria and Argentina traded big runs in the first half. Argentina ran out to an early double-digit lead, but Nigeria stormed back to tie the game at 43-43 at the half.

From there, it was all Argentina en route to their 94-81 victory. Nigeria, as it did against Russia, had chances to stay in the game, but mistakes at key times thwarted their efforts.

Nigeria had 16 turnovers to 15 for Argentina, but the Nigerian mistakes came at bad times and the Argentinians made them pay to the tune of a 27-18 edge in points off turnovers and Nigeria had trouble finishing inside, getting outscored on second-chance opportunities 18-6 despite a 13-12 edge on the offensive glass.

Ageless (OK, he’s 39) Luis Scola led Argentina with 23 points and 10 rebounds, becoming the second-leading scorer in FIBA World Cup history, passing Australian Andrew Gaze and now has 611 points in five World Cup tournaments. Brazil’s Oscar Schmidt is far ahead at the top of the list with 906 points.

Patricio Garino added 17 points for three steals for Argentina, while Facundo Campazzo finished with 14 points — including two 3-pointers in the closing seconds — to go with eight assists.

Argentina shot 42 percent (30-for-72) overall and hit 12-of-34 from 3-point land (35 percent).

Josh Okogie of the Minnesota Timberwolves paced Nigeria with 18 points and five assists and also had three steals. Al-Farouq Aminu had eight rebounds, but finished with just three points on 1-of-6 shooting. Jordan Nwora had 12 points and five steals and Chimezie Metu of the San Antonio Spurs blocked three shots.

Nigeria shot only 38 percent (27-for-72) overall and was 9-for-28 (32 percent) from deep.

Korea and Nigeria will be heading to Group M in Guangzhou for the classification round looking to take a win, as the first-round records carry over on the other side of the bracket as well. They face off at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, followed by Russia and Argentina at 8:30 a.m.