Scola now second all-time in points
Luis Scola is not slowing down at 39, he’s moving up.
Scola climbed into the No. 2 spot on FIBA’s all-time World Cup scoring list on Monday, with his 23 points helping Argentina hold off Nigeria 94-81in a Group B game at Wuhan, China, to clinch a berth in the second round.
Scola, whose five World Cup appearances are tied for the most by any player, also had 10 rebounds for Argentina (2-0). He’s up to 611 points in his World Cup career, passing Australia’s Andrew Gaze’s total of 594. He is now second only to Brazilian scoring great Oscar Schmidt’s 906 points.
“As I have said before, this is more than a game to me,” Scola said. “I love representing my country.”
Scola was the youngest player on Argentina’s team that went to the 2002 world championships, the precursor to the World Cup. He’s now the oldest player on Argentina’s roster by more than11years. Monday was Scola’s 35th career World Cup game, and his 29th reaching double figures in scoring. TOUGH START: China’s World Cup took a big hit on Monday, and Poland got a giant boost. In the first tough test of the young tournament for both teams, China fell to a better organized and more resilient Poland, 7976 in overtime. The win guaranteed Poland a berth in the next round.
The Chinese had their chances. They led 72-71 with 6.1 seconds left in regulation, but Mateusz Ponitka stole an inbounds pass and was fouled. He forced overtime by making one of two free throws. China then had chance to tie or take the lead in overtime, trailing by two points with 10.8 seconds left, but failed to in-bound the ball under Polish pressure.
“It was a tough game for us, a close game down the stretch,” China coach Li Nan said. “It’s a very hard loss for us.”
It’s a bad start for China, which was 0-10 in the last two Olympics and promised fans it would be vastly improved in its home World Cup. RUNNING AFOUL: Nick Nurse’s frustration with the officiating boiled over early in Canada’s opening-game loss to Australia.
Canada was called for 12 fouls in the first half Sunday, compared to four for Austrlia. And Nurse picked up a technical for arguing a call.
“I just thought there was a lot of flopping going on and (the officials) called every one of them,” Nurse said Monday. “I know that’s part of the game and they’ve got experienced players, but I’m just trying to get them to call it straight up.
“And then Cory Joseph, who’s a veteran NBA player, veteran FIBA player, gets tripped coming up the floor and gets his third foul. Those are costly things … I’ve got to take my best player off the floor … I was just fighting for my team. I’m always going to fight for my team when I think we’re not getting the good calls.”