KAYSERI (2010 FIBA World Championship) – Serbia finally had their roster complete and held on to beat Australia 94-79 in day four of Group A in the FIBA World Championship.

The addition of center Nenad Kristic, who came from the bench, gave more options offensively to coach Dusan Ivkovic who used him right in the first quarter.

In the first quarter both teams fought hard on both sides of the court, the Serbians made a quick 7-0 run to be up 14-7 and the first quarter ended 16-12. Milos Teodosic and Novica Velickovic scored 14 of the 16 points by Serbia while Nenad Kristic made 2 late in the quarter.

Then in the second quarter the Serbians relied on their hot shooting from long distance, as they made 5-10, to stay with the lead and finish up 43-37. The offense by Marko Keselj and Nenad Kristic was also key in their attack and combined for 14 in the quarter alone. Adam Gibson led Australia with 8 points.

Serbia controlled the game in the third quarter led by their reserves who did a good job of taking the ball inside to open the shooters who were efficient. Also on defense they forced some costly turnovers that were capitalized on the other side.

In the final ten minutes Australia came back led by Matt Nielsen and Brad Newley to be down 81-78 after a three pointer by Teodosic and two free throws put the game away from the Serbians who are 3-1.

Teodosic led the Serbians with 19 points while Velickovic followed with 18. Shooter Stefan Markovic left the game in the final quarter with a right hand injury after he fouled Patrick Mills.

Quotes:

Dusan Ivkovic (Head Coach, Serbia): It was a tough game. This was the second hardest game after the one against Germany. It was an interesting game for us because we had the chance to try 35 3-points-shoot while only 31 2-point-shot. This means that we took some risk and won the game.

Brett Brown (Head Coach, Australia): “First of all congratulations to coach and Serbia. I am disappointed with losing this game. There are 2 perspectives about these games like playing with Argentina and Serbia. We fought in the field and played well but then they put their class and experience so at the end they won.

Matthew Nielsen (Forward, Australia): Serbia is a strong team. We made silly mistakes and lost. The situation in group is very complicated and it is not clear what will happen. After the games tonight it will be clearer.

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KAYSERI (2010 FIBA World Championship) – It seemed to be an easy game by the time it started, but Argentina had to play harder than expected to beat Jordan 88-79 to close day four of competition in Group A of the FIBA World Championship.

Argentina clearly dominated the first quarter, led by Luis Scola who scored 15 points as they won 35-19. Carlos Delfino also helped the South Americans with 12 points.

The Jordanians were down but not out, as they changed their defense to zone to not allow any liberties to Luis Scola who only scored 2 points in the second quarter and finished down 49-37. Jordan made a 7-0 run in the final two minutes to end down by twelve.

In the third quarter Jordan opened up their offense from long distance led by Ayman Idais and Rasheim Wright. A three pointer by Idais closed the game 55-49 but baskets by Luis Cequeira and Juan Gutierrez gave Argentina a 61-55 third quarter lead.

Then in the final quarter Jordan tried to spark another rally but Argentina was led by Scola and Delfino who did their best to put the Jordanians away.

Luis Scola reached the 30 point mark once again, making 9 in the final quarter. Carlos Delfino added 18 and Paolo Quinteros 11.

Now Argentina has a 4-0 record finishes the preliminary round against Serbia for first place at 19:00 on Thursday. Jordan is 0-4 and ends the preliminary round against Germany at 21:30.

Quotes:

Sergio Hernandez (Head Coach, Argentina): They forced us with zone defense. We couldn’t make shots; they got rebounds and so made fast breaks. They were good in pick and rolls. We tried our best.

Mario Palma (Head Coach, Jordan): We turned to zone in defense and put in a good fight. We made fast breaks, pick and rolls and shots. We kept the game close. But I don’t want to talk about any excuse, if you play with Argentina, even they go behind or forward during the game, in the end they win.

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