FIBA World Cup: Puerto Rico, Venezuela make Americas look good
By Phil Watson
Campazzo has Argentina rolling
At Wuhan, Argentinian point guard Facundo Campazzo continued his superlative play to lead his team to a clean sweep in Group B, punctuated by a 69-61 win over previously unbeaten Russia on Wednesday.
Argentina led by as much as 13 points in the fourth quarter before Russia made a late charge, getting to within two at 63-61 on a layup by Andrei Sopin.
From there, Campazzo just took over, scoring on a drive with 28 seconds left to make it 65-61 and then stealing the ball from Sopin and drawing a foul with 20 seconds to go. His free throws made it a six-point edge for Argentina.
Campazzo wasn’t done. After Gabriel Deck grabbed a tough rebound, Campazzo set up Patricio Garino for a dunk at the buzzer that annoyed the Russians (hey, scoring margin is a tiebreaker here, so every point matters).
Campazzo finished with 21 points, seven assists and three steals and averaged 15.3 points and 7.0 assists in Argentina’s three first-round wins.
Luis Scola, the 39-year-old that is Argentina’s last holdover from its Olympic gold medal team in 2004, finished with1 3 points and eight rebounds and Garino and Nicolas Laprovittola had three steals each as Russia shot itself in the foot with 21 turnovers.
Argentina shot only 33.9 percent (20-for-59) and was 4-for-20 (20 percent) from deep, while Russia hit 44.4 percent (24-for-54), but made only 4-of-24 (16.7 percent) from 3-point range.
Andrey Zubkov finished with 18 points and seven rebounds for Russia.
In the other game in Group B Wednesday, Nigeria took out its frustration on Korea, getting its first win of the tournament with a convincing 108-66 blowout.
After a tight first period, Nigeria exploded, outscoring the Koreans 91-51 over the final three quarters.
Michael Eric led Nigeria with 17 points and nine rebounds, Ike Diogu scored 16 points and Chimezie Metu of the San Antonio Spurs went for 15 points and nine rebounds. Ike Iroegbu handed out six assists and Josh Okogie of the Minnesota Timberwolves nabbed four steals.
Nigeria shot 51.2 percent (42-for-82) and was 15-for-31 from 3-point land (48.4 percent). Korea countered with 33.8 percent (25-for-74) and 11-for-31 (35.5 percent) shooting.
Guna Ra had a double-double for Korea with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
While Argentina and Russia had already clinched berths in the second round, Argentina joins Poland in the Group I standings at 3-0, while Russia and Venezuela are 2-1.
In the classification round, Nigeria and China enter at 1-2 into Group M, with Ivory Coast and Korea coming in 0-3.