The United States advanced to the semifinals of the Basketball World Cup on Tuesday, rebounding significantly from their first loss of the tournament.
Mikal Bridges scored 14 of his 24 first-half points, Tyrese Haliburton added 18, and the United States defense was relentless for much of the game en route to a 100-63 victory over Italy on Tuesday night.
By the end of the second round, the United States had lost nearly six points to Lithuania.
Lithuanians are witnessing an old story repeating itself. They also beat the United States at the 1998 World Cup and 2004 Olympics before leaving empty-handed.
Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 18 of his 21 first-half points as Serbia, inspired by the serious injury of one of their players, eliminated Lithuania 87-68 to reach the quarterfinals unbeaten. The highest goal Lithuania can now aim for is fifth place.
“As you can see, the game against the USA was useless,” said Lithuania’s Tadas Sedekerskis, who is his team’s top scorer with 14 points. “It’s history, nothing more. We have no chance of winning medals.”
With their victory, the USA (5-1) secured a place in the top four at 19 World Cups. On Friday, they meet Germany (5-0) or Latvia (4-1); These two teams will meet in Manila on Wednesday in the quarterfinals.
In the other semi-final on Friday, Serbia (5-1) meets the winners of Canada’s game against Slovenia on Wednesday.
Serbia came to play with their striker Borisa Simanica’s jersey on a chair on their bench. Simanic lost a kidney last week after sustaining an elbow bump in the game against South Sudan. He underwent surgery after this encounter, and subsequent complications led doctors to operate again and remove the affected kidney.
“He texted us in the morning,” Bogdanovic said. “He wrote to us that he’s fine: ‘I’m fine after two surgeries. Come out and win. Forget me and we will win.’ It was a tremendous voice of encouragement and a burst of energy tonight, thanks to Borisa. This is for him.”
