FIBA World Cup: Puerto Rico, Venezuela make Americas look good

Serbia steady in beating Italy

At Foshan, Serbia pulled away from Italy after the Italians made the game close in the fourth quarter, putting the game away with a 20-5 burst and cruising to a 92-77 victory to finish Group D with a 3-0 record and a gaudy plus-120 scoring margin.

Serbia did, however, cool off. After shooting 75 percent in their rout of the Philippines on Monday and shooting 59 percent in the first two games combined, the Serbians made 45.8 percent Wednesday (45.8 percent) overall while making 10-of-24 (41.7 percent) from 3-point range.

Italy made only 43.1 percent (22-for-51) and was 11-for-26 (42.3 percent) from deep.

But Serbia took advantage of opportunities where Italy did not. Serbia’s 15 turnovers led to only 14 Italian points, whereas the Serbians piled up 27 points off 17 Italian mistakes.

Italy also struggled to defend inside, as Serbia dominated 32-14 in the paint.

Danilo Gallinari of the Oklahoma City Thunder had a huge game for Italy in the loss, finishing with 26 points to go with eight rebounds, and Marco Belinelli of San Antonio had 15 points, but was only 2-of-6 at the foul line. Jeff Brooks had three steals for Italy.

But Bogdan Bogdanovic of the Sacramento Kings was huge as well, with a game-high 31 points to go with five assists and five steals.

Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets added 15 points and Kings forward Nemanja Bjelica had nine assists and seven boards while scoring only five points on 2-of-9 shooting.

In the first game in Group D Wednesday, the Philippines roared back from a 10-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter and forced overtime when Jaymar Perez canned a 3-pointer with 33 seconds left in regulation.

The Philippines took a 76-73 lead early in overtime on a basket from Roger Pogoy and a split at the foul line by Andray Blatche before Angola ran off seven straight points.

Yanick Moreira tipped in a Gerson Domingos miss with 1:07 left to put the Angolans back up 82-78 and Domingos split two free throws with 31 ticks on the clock to make it a five-point game.

Pogoy drilled a 3-pointer to cut it to two and Carlos Morais missed a chance to ice the game with seven seconds to go, missing the second of two free throws. Kiefer Ravena’s 3-pointer to force a second overtime was off-target and Angola had its first win of this FIBA World Cup.

Serbia (3-0) and Italy (2-1) move on to Group J play in Wuhan, while Angola (1-2) and the Philippines (0-3) head to Beijing to participate in Group N of the classification round.