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Saturday, August 11
Boozer's 29 points needed to edge Argentina
Associated Press
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SAITAMA, Japan -- Duke's Carlos Boozer scored 29 points --
including making 15 of 17 foul shots -- and grabbed nine rebounds
Saturday as the United States survived a late scare to advance to
the finals of the World Basketball Championship for Young Men with
a 95-90 victory over Argentina.
Behind Boozer's performance at Saitama Super Arena, the
Americans moved on to the finals where they will face Croatia.
"Argentina came at us real strong," Boozer said. "The big
thing for us though was our success from the free throw line and we
played well defensively."
Boozer's 29 points were the most ever scored by an American in
the history of the 21-and-under championships. Duke teammate Chris
Duhon had 12 assists, also a U.S. record for this tournament.
Leading 91-85 with 45 seconds left, the Americans looked assured
of a place in the final. But Argentina's Carlos Delfina hit a
three-pointer, and Adrian Boccia followed with a layup seconds
later to cut the deficit to 91-90.
Boozer made two free throws, and UCLA's Jason Kapono
followed with two more to seal the victory.
Despite missing six of its last 11 free throws, the United States hit a 21-under team single-game
record 42 of 52 free throws for the game, or 80.8 percent.
After a sluggish first half, the United States picked its play
up in the third quarter, getting 12 points from Boozer and holding
Argentina to 17 to take a 69-62 lead into the final 10 minutes.
Argentina got some clutch shooting from beyond the 3-point
arc in the final minutes of the second period from Boccia and went
into halftime tied at 45.
"They made some unbelievable 3-pointers," U.S. coach Jim
Boeheim said. "Yet we were able to get control of the game, and if
Carlos didn't get that rebound on that late 3-pointer we could
have lost this game."
In Saturday's other semifinal game, guard Mario Stojic scored 25
points, and center Kresimir Loncar added 18 as Croatia defeated the
Dominican Republic 89-64.
"We lost our first three games of the preliminary round, but we
knew we came here with good players and we never lost faith in
them," Croatia coach Neven Spahija said.
Croatia jumped out to a 30-18 lead and never looked back despite
scoring only eight points in the second quarter.
"We played well, we were just unlucky," said Spahija when
asked if his assistant coach was running the offense in the second
period.
Earlier Saturday, Egypt got 23 points each from Ahmed Abdel-Bali
and Mohamed El-Saharti en route to a 91-76 victory over Qatar to
secure ninth place.
Spain defeated Israel 76-68 and will take on Slovenia on Sunday
to determine fifth place. Slovenia downed defending champion
Australia 99-89.
Israel and Australia will square off for seventh place.
Yuta Tabuse of Brigham Young-Hawaii made a clutch layup with
seconds remaining to lift Japan to a 82-81 victory over South Korea
as the host nation finished in 11th place. Japan trailed 48-35 at
the half but came back with 47 points in the second half.
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