MANILA – The United States men’s basketball team cruised to a wire-to-wire 110-62 domination of Jordan to stay undefeated in the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup last night at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Anthony Edwards caught fire early to finish with 22 points, with three outside conversions, to go with four rebounds and two assists.
With the win, Team USA heads to the round-of-16 with a 3-0 win-loss slate.
Bobby Portis Jr. added 13 markers and six rebounds. Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jalen Brunson had 12 and 10 points, respectively, while Josh Hart hauled 12 rebounds to go with two points for Team USA.
The Americans surged to a 15-2 start behind early hits from Brunson and Jackson. The lead swelled further to 31-12 after the first 10 minutes behind consecutive shots from Edwards.
Team USA continued its rampage from second quarter onwards with Mikal Bridges, Edwards and Jackson connecting their shots as the lead reached its biggest at 108-58 on a basket by Paolo Banchero.
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson finished with 20 points, with 15 coming in the first two quarters, while Freddy Ibrahim added 10 markers as Jordan heads to the classification round without a win.
Meanwhile, Serbia also moved on to the round-of-16 of the competition with unbeaten 3-0 win-loss record after an 82-57 annihilation of South Sudan at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Nikola Jovic had a perfect game with 23 points, on 8-of-8 field goal shooting, Bogdan Bogdanovic added 20 markers, while Nikola Milutinov and Ognjen Dobric had 17 and 12 points, respectively.
Georgia (2-1) also clinched a seat to the next phase of the World Cup following a wire-to-wire 70-59 manhandling of Venezuela (0-3) over at the Okinawa Arena in Okinawa, Japan.
Tornike Shengelia top-scored for Georgia with 25 points, while Orlando Magic center Goga Bitadze chipped in double-double numbers of 11 points and 11 rebounds in the lopsided victory./PN
BOX SCORE:
USA 110 – Edwards 22, Portis 13, Jackson 12, Brunson 10, Bridges 9, Reaves 8, Kessler 8, Banchero 8, Ingram 7, Haliburton 6, Johnson 5, Hart 2.
JORDAN 62 – Hollis-Jefferson 20, Ibrahim 10, Dwairi 9, Hawwas 5, Kanaan 5, Alnajdawi 4, Hussein 4, Hammouri 3, Abbas 2, Bzai 0, Hamarsheh 0.
Quarterscores: 31-12, 62-33, 87-49, 110-62.
