Serbia’s WCup bid off to a flying start
Italy sink Philippines 108-62, other big guns win openers
SHANGHAI, Aug 31, (AP): Serbia’s push toward unseating the US as World Cup champions is off and running.
Bogdan Bogdanovic made his first four 3-point attempts to help his team take control early on, All-NBA center Nikola Jokic didn’t even start and the Serbians still had plenty on the way to easing past Angola 105-59 on Saturday in the first game of the World Cup.
“We played a great game from the beginning until the end,” Serbia forward Nikola Milutinov said. “We were tough. We were strong. Mentally we were ready.”
Bogdanovic scored 24 points on 8 for 10 shooting for Serbia (1-0 in Group D), which lost gold-medal games to the US at the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Michal Sokolowski scored 16 points and grabbed nine rebounds, and Poland – back in the World Cup for the first time since 1967 – topped Venezuela in a Group A opener. Mateusz Ponitka scored 15 for the winners, and Poland finished with five players in double figures.
“We played to our identity, really good team basketball,” Poland coach Mike Taylor said.
Pedro Chourio scored 15 for Venezuela.
At Wuhan, Russia rallied in the final minutes to hold off Nigeria and get what may be a key win in Group B.
Mikhail Kulagin led the Russians with 16 points. Nigeria had six players in double figures, led by 18 from Josh Okogie. His 3-pointer midway through the fourth quarter put Nigeria up 7163, but the Russians ended the game on a 19-6 run.
At Beijing, in a game tied at the half, China ran away in the final two quarters to open its home World Cup with a win.
Yi Jianlian scored 19 points, Guo Ailun had 17 and Zhou Qi added 12 for the Chinese, who shot 53% and held Ivory Coast to 29% shooting. Guy Landry Edi led Ivory Coast with 10 points.
At Foshan, Italy opened the game on a 37-8 run and never looked back behind 17 points apiece from Luigi Datome and Amedeo Della Valle. Danilo Gallinari added 16 for Italy.
Andray Blatche had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Philippines, and Jaymar Perez scored 15 as well.
At Guangzhou, Spain led 42-39 at the half before outscoring Tunisia 5923 after intermission.
Ricky Rubio scored 17 points and Sergio Llull 16 for Spain, which finished with six players in double figures. Salah Mejri led Tunisia with 15 points.
At Wuhan, Nicolas Laprovittola scored 17 points and Luis Scola had 15 as Argentina cruised in its opener. Guna Ra was dominant in defeat, finishing with 31 points and 15 rebounds for South Korea.