US holds off Colombia in World Cup qualifying, France wins

USA Basketball’s magic number for clinching a World Cup berth is down to one.

Langston Galloway and David Stockton each scored 23 points, and moved the Americans to the brink of earning a spot in next year’s World Cup with an 88-81 win over Colombia on Monday night.

The Americans improved to 8-2 in qualifying, with two games left — those coming in February, both on the road. There are multiple ways the U.S. can clinch its spot in the 32-team World Cup field, the simplest of them being a win against either Uruguay on Feb. 23 or Brazil on Feb. 26.

“This is really about the character of your guys,” U.S. coach Jim Boylen said. “And we’ve got a high-character group, guys that care.”

The World Cup will be held in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia next summer. There was a scenario in which the U.S. could have clinched Monday night, if Brazil had lost to Mexico. Brazil won 102-56.

Instead, the Americans now have to wait until February. The only way they wouldn’t qualify for the World Cup — the primary way teams will earn a spot into the 2024 Paris Olympics — is by losing both February games, plus have at least four outcomes of other games not go their way, and then they’d have to lose a series of tiebreakers on top of all that.

The situation would have been dire if Colombia had pulled off the upset. It gave the U.S. a bit of a scare, closing within seven early in the fourth quarter and missing a shot that would have cut the deficit to five.