SGA leads Canada past France
JAKARTA, INDONESIA >> Canada has never medaled at the Basketball World Cup. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander evidently has his sights on changing that, and his team sent a serious message on the opening night of the tournament.
Gilgeous-Alexander scored 27 points and Canada topped France, 95-65, in a Group H game on Friday night.
Canada outscored France 25-8 in the third quarter, turning what was a three-point game at the half into a runaway.
“I’m not surprised,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We played really good basketball today. We did the right things on both ends of the court . ... When we play to our identity and the things we’ve been preaching for the last month...we can beat and play with anyone in the world. We just have to continue to get better and the sky’s the limit.”
MONTENEGRO 91, MEXICO 71 MANILA, PHILIPPINES >>
Nikola Vucevic got Montenegro’s off to a flying start.
Vucevic finished with 27 points and 10 rebounds in just 31 minutes, and Montenegro pulled away for a win over Mexico in Group D. Vucevic was 11 for 15 from the field, including 3 for 3 on 3-pointers.
LITHUANIA 93, EGYPT 67 MANILA, PHILIPPINES >> Margiris Normantas scored 18 points in 18 minutes and Lithuania easily won its opener.
Jonas Valanciunas had 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Elmantas Bendzius scored 10 for a Lithuania team that outrebounded Egypt 53-34. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 87, PHILIPPINES 81
MANILA, PHILIPPINES >> Karl-Anthony Towns had 26 points and 10 rebounds and the Dominican Republic prevailed on a night where fans in the Philippines set a World Cup attendance record.
A total of 38,115 fans came to the game, breaking the record of 32,616 set at the gold-medal game of the 1994 world championship in Toronto when the U.S. rolled past Russia for the title.
ITALY 81, ANGOLA 67 MANILA, PHILIPPINES >>
Simone Fontecchio scored 19 points and Italy pulled away in the final 12 minutes to hold off upstart Angola.
Stefano Tonut scored 18 points for Italy, Giampaolo Ricci scored 12 and Marco Spissu added seven assists.
AUSTRALIA 98, FINLAND 72 OKINAWA, JAPAN >>
Patty Mills scored 25 points and Olympic bronze medalist Australia overwhelmed Finland over the final 23 minutes in the opening game for both teams.
Josh Giddey flirted with a triple-double — finishing with 14 points, nine rebounds and eight assists — for the winners, who got 13 from Joe Ingles and 10 from Dante Exum.
GERMANY 81, JAPAN 63 OKINAWA, JAPAN >>
Moritz Wagner scored 25 points and added nine rebounds as Germany pulled away from the start and was up 53-31 at the half in the first game in the tournament for both teams.
Dennis Schroder added 14 points and Daniel Theis had 13 for the winners. Moritz Wagner’s brother, Franz Wagner, had 10 points.
LATVIA 109, LEBANON 70 JAKARTA, INDONESIA >>
Dairis Bertans scored 20 points, going 6 for 7 on 3-pointers, and Latvia turned its first World Cup game into an easy win over Lebanon.
Rolands Smits had 17 points for Latvia, which had a 10-point lead midway through the first quarter and kept pulling away.