FIBA Men U19: Six clubs grab spots in QFs

Canada’s Christopher Egi throws down a dunk on Iran Tuesday.

Day 6 of the FIBA Men U19 World Championships resulted in six teams clinching spots in the quarterfinals, with three teams still undefeated after Croatia took a 91:90 barnburner from previously unbeaten Lithuania.

At the end of the day’s competition, the following six teams were assured of their spots in the next round of the tournament:

Group E – Spain, Lithuania, Croatia
Group F – USA, Serbia, China

In Group E, either Canada or Argentina will grab the final slot, based on the following scenarios:

• Canada will advance if they beat Argentina.
• Argentina will advance if they beat Canada and Iran falls to Croatia.
• Argentina would need a 25-point victory over Canada if Iran beats Croatia and creates a three-way tie.

Group F’s final spot will go to the winner of the Russia-Australia contest on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the game of the day was played between Croatia and 4-0 Lithuania. The Croatians built a 24-point lead, only to have Lithuania charge back and take the lead with under a minute to play. Croatia took the victory with a three-ball with 7.7 seconds to play to put them up by a point, knocking off one of the remaining undefeated teams.

Spain outlasted Argentina 74:58 in a contest that was a lot closer than the score reflects as the Argentinians were only down 40:39 with five minutes to play in the third frame. The Spaniards took control at that point and pulled away preserving their unblemished record. They will win Group E with a victory over Lithuania on Wednesday.

Canada put up 38 points on the Iranians with a 98:57 win to improve to 3-2 on the competition.

The US earned another big win, putting up 43 on Australia, 94:51. The win improves the United States’ contingent to 5-0, setting up a first-place showdown with Serbia on Wednesday. In the five games they’ve played the US has defeated their opponents by an average of 54 points.

Serbia beat China 76:50 to remain at the top of Group F with the US at 5-0.

Russia kept their chances of moving on alive with an 82:78 win overtime over Brazil. The win improves Russia to 2-3 while dropping Brazil to 1-4.

Canada’s Tyler Ennis McIntyre remained at the top of the scoring leaders list with 22.2ppg with Croatia’s Dario Saric close behind at 20.4ppg. Saric leads the rebounders chart with 14.2rpg with Dalen Traore of Cote d’Ivoire at 11.6rpg. Saric also leads the assist column with 6.2apg with Radovan Kouril of the Czech Republic with 5.4apg.