FIBA World Cup: Team USA advances, heartbreak for Lithuania

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Day 8 at the FIBA World Cup featured 3 more teams punching tickets to the quarterfinals, including Team USA, setting up a potentially wild Monday in Group K.

With the first of two games in the second round of the FIBA World Cup now in the books, seven of the eight quarterfinal spots have been spoken for. Team USA, Australia and France all clinched berths in the round of eight with victories on Saturday.

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That sets up a potentially wild final day in Group K, where three teams are in the running for one last available spot.

Team USA took care of business with a 69-53 win over Greece on Saturday, but the Czech Republic manhandled Brazil 93-71 to leave three teams tied at 3-1 entering Monday.

To reach the quarterfinals, Greece needs to beat the Czech by at least eight points and get help from Team USA against Brazil.

The Czech Republic is 3-1 with a plus-29 scoring margin. Greece is 2-2 with a plus-14 margin, while Brazil’s blowout loss was damaging in a tiebreaker scenario at it is 3-1, but with a minus-2 differential.

An eight-point win by Greece would push their scoring margin to plus-22 and drop the Czechs to plus-21.

Here are the clinching scenarios for Group K:

Czech Republic: Advances with a win OR a loss by less than eight points and a Brazil loss to the U.S.
Brazil: Advances with a win over the U.S. and a loss by the Czech Republic to Brazil.
Greece: Advances with a win by at least eight points over the Czech Republic and a loss by Brazil to the U.S.

Group L was made much simpler. Australia held off a dogged effort by the Dominican Republic to improve to 4-0, while France — with some possible help from a missed call late in the game — blew a 17-point lead, but held off Lithuania 78-75 to also get to 4-0.

The star of the day in Group K was Tomas Satoransky of the Chicago Bulls, who messed around with achieving the first-ever triple-double in FIBA World Cup play before settling for 20 points, nine assists, seven rebounds, three steals, two blocked shots and the most souvenir sales in the Shenzhen Bay Sports Center Arena.

Actually, we haven’t verified that last one. But everything else Satoransky did fueled the Czech Republic to a blowout of previously unbeaten Brazil and set up the Monday scenarios outlined above.

In classification round play, New Zealand and Turkey will move on to the 17-24 bracket after winning on Saturday in Group O.

Corey Webster scored 27 points and had six assists and Isaac Fotu added 23 points and 10 rebounds for New Zealand (2-2) in their 111-81 win over Japan (0-4). Nick Fazekas went off for 31 points for the Japanese, who held Rui Hachimura of the Washington Wizards out of the game.

Turkey (2-2) had to come back from 12 points down to get past Montenegro (0-4) by a 79-74 count. Melih Mahmutoglu scored 17 points for Turkey and Scottie Wilbekin had 13 assists and four steals. Nikola Vucevic of the Orlando Magic went for 20 points for the Montenegrins.

In Group P, Canada set a FIBA World Cup record by making 24 3-pointers in a 126-71 thumping of Jordan, while Germany got past Senegal 89-78. With the wins, Canada and Germany reach the 17-24 bracket.

Kyle Wiltjer led Canada’s splash party with 29 points, going 7-for-9 from deep. Dar Tucker led Jordan with 13 points.

Dennis Schroder of the Oklahoma City Thunder paced Germany with 24 points and 12 assists, Maurice Ndour and Ibrahima Faye each scored 17 points for Senegal, which was outrebounded 44-27, leading to a 22-8 edge in second-chance points for the Germans.