France and Australia secured their tickets to the quarterfinals of the 2019 World Cup in China with their victories against the Dominican Republic and Lithuania, respectively, while the United States beat Greece and the Czech Republic reiterated their surprise role by defeating the hitherto undefeated Brazil.
The 78-75 from France to Lithuania and the 82-76 from Australia to the Dominican Republic leaves Group L that takes place in Nanking resolved, with both teams classified to the quarterfinals and that will be measured against each other to decide the first.
For their part, the United States won the day’s stellar match against Greece (69-53) in Shenzhen, but Brazil’s defeat against the Czech Republic (71-93) prevented them from confirming their classification.
The North American team will go to the quarterfinals, beating Brazil on the following day, although a defeat against the Brazilians and a victory for the Czech Republic over Greece could leave them out.
The ‘Team USA’ beat Greece in a game with a much slower pace than usual, in which they had to work towards the victory little by little, in a duel with worse shooting numbers (7 triples of 30 attempts, 26%).
With point guard Kemba Walker (15 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists) the 10 points and 5 rebounds of Donovan Mitchell and a great work under the hoops (50-40 in the rebounds), the American team leaves the Greece of Giannis Antetokounmpo (15 points and 13 rebounds for him) with the obligation to beat Brazil if he wants to go to the quarterfinals.
The Czech Republic, one of the great surprises of the tournament, endorsed that feeling by beating the ‘canarinha’ by 22 points (71-93) in a broken duel in the second quarter in which the Czech team grabbed the 15 points advantage that He no longer let it escape, and he has the pass to the quarterfinals in his hand, beating Greece.
A great game by point guard Tomas Satoranski (20 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists), seconded by Ondrej Balvin’s ‘double-double’ (15 points and 11 rebounds) were the keys to the Czech victory against a Brazilian team that did not find solidity that had characterized her until now in the championship and now she will have to face them against the United States.
In the other group, Australia signed their pass to the quarterfinals not without suffering against a Dominican Republic (82-76) that did not surrender until the last quarter, with guard Patty Mills (19 points, 9 assists, 4 rebounds ) as a ‘boomer’ star.
Víctor Liz (14 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists) returned to lead the Quisqueyanos, with brilliant moments from point guard Gelvis Solano (6 points and 9 assists) and the 16 points with 7 rebounds from center Eloy Vargas, but they were not enough to continue the dream of Néstor ‘Che’ García, outside of the quarterfinals.
The Dominican ruling was signed by France, by beating Lithuania by 78-75, in a match that clearly dominated during the first three quarters (65-54), but in which the Baltic team was revealed to come back in the absence of the last 4 minutes, which came with a draw at 1:06 from the end, and that only Nando de Colo could unblock with a risky basket against Jonas Valanciunas.
The French guard contributed 21 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists, although the top scorer of the game was his teammate Evan Fournier, a regular in these matches and today the author of 24 goals. Valanciunas (18 points and 8 rebounds), point guard Mantas Kalnietis (12) and 10 points for Marius Grigonis and Lukas Lekavicius kept the Lithuanian dream, already out of the eight best in the World Cup.
Tomorrow, Argentina and Poland will compete for first place in their group at 8:00 p.m. local time in Foshan (12:00 GMT), the same as Spain and Greece will do at 8:30 p.m. in Wuhan (12:30 GMT). The winner of each match will face the loser of the other in the quarterfinal matches scheduled for Tuesday 10.
– Results of the day:
. Second stage:
Group K
Brazil 71 – Czech Republic 93
United States 69 – Greece 53
Group L
Australia 82 – Dominican Republic 76
France 78 – Lithuania 75
. Matches for positions 17 to 32:
Group O
New Zealand 111 – Japan 81
Turkey 79 – Montenegro 74
Group P
Canada 126 – Jordan 71
Germany 89 – Senegal 78. EFE