Lithuania and Serbia win - FIBA U-19 World Championship Roundup of 9th July (Part-2)
USA 84 – Poland 47
In a matchup to determine the 5-8 positions, USA annihilated Poland 84-47 on Saturday night. Four players from USA landed in double figures which left no room for the opposition to gain any sort of momentum.
Small forward Doug Mc Dermott paced the effort for USA and finished off with a game-high 19 points and 5 rebounds. From Poland, Michal Michalak and Piotr Niedzwiedzki were the only players who displayed some confrontation against
the might of USA. Michalak landed a team-high 13 points while Piotr scored 10 points. However, the rest of the players failed to display a decent performance.
USA dominated Poland in all of the four quarters giving them no room to fight back. They smashed the Polish tea, with 36 points in the first half as compared to 21 points and took a comprehensive 15 points lead at halftime.
Poland strived to retaliate in the second half; however the USA struck back ripped them apart with a 48-point blitz in the last two quarters and romped towards a blowout win.
Australia 90 – Croatia 63
The second match up for the 5-8 positions depicted the same story as the first. It was Australia this time, who thrashed the Croatian team and sealed a comprehensive 90-63 win.
Shooting guard Hugh Greenwood stepped up to lift the momentum for the Australian team with a game-high 21 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Mitchell Creek was the highlight of the night though. Creek finished 4 assists short from
landing a triple-double in the tournament as he finished off with 20 points, 10 boards and 6 assists.
Even though Boris Barac and Dario Saric had an impressive night and powered the Croatian team with 20 and 17 points respectively, however their efforts couldn’t make the life difficult for the opposition.
Croatia managed to keep themselves in a competitive position during the first half of the game when they were trailing by five points as the score board read 40-35. The Australian team however triggered a scoring rampage in the
third quarter and amplified the lead to 11 points before entering the fourth quarter.
The final period proved to be a complete night mare for the Croatian team. Australia outscored Croatia 28-12 and wrapped up a huge 27-point victory.
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