SAITAMA, Japan -- Duke's Chris Duhon and Iowa's Reggie Evans
scored 17 points each Friday, sending the unbeaten United States
past Slovenia 110-83 and into the semifinals of the World
Basketball Championship for Young Men.
The Americans won their sixth straight game and will play
Argentina on Saturday in the 12-nation tournament for players under
21.
In other quarterfinals, it was: Dominican Republic 91, Israel
72; Croatia 83, Spain 67; and Argentina 75, Australia 64. The
Dominican Republic will play Croatia in the other semifinal
Saturday.
Duhon was 3-for-6 from the 3-point line. He scored 10 points in the
third period as the United States opened a 79-62 lead.
"I think he's just starting to realize what he can do," U.S.
coach Jim Boeheim of Syracuse said. "I had Jason (Williams) last
summer and he reminds me a lot of him."
The United States led 54-41 at the half. Evans scored 10 points
in the first half and Nick Collison of Kansas added nine.
"Most team are going to have their starting five and one or two guys coming
off the bench, but we have a starting 12," Kapono said. "There's five
guys that start but then our bench players are so strong that teams just
can't match our 12 guys because we're so talented and playing so well."
The United States beat Argentina 84-71 in the preliminary round.
"Argentina played well today and tomorrow will be a tough game,
by far our toughest yet," Boeheim said. "We've played Argentina five times in the last three years so they know us
very well and we know them very well."
Carlos Delfino scored seven points in the final two minutes as
Argentina beat defending champion Australia. Federico Kammerichs
had 21 points for Argentina, which held the Aussies to eight points
in the third quarter.
"Argentina is a great defensive team," Australia coach Ian
Stacker said. "They don't give you many uncontested shots but our
shooting percentages were bad and that was the difference."
Luis Flores scored 22 points and Yack Martinez had 17 rebounds
as the Dominican Republic upset Israel. Croatia got 17 points each
from Zoran Planinic and Mario Stojic.
In consolation games, Egypt beat South Korea 101-76 and Qatar
downed Japan 96-80.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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