Serbia, Georgia, and Brazil advanced to the second round of basketball’s World Cup with victories on Wednesday.
Serbia defeated South Sudan 115-83 helped by 25 points from 20-year-old Nikola Jovic. Georgia topped Venezuela 70-59 behind 25 points from Tornike Shengelia, and Brazil beat Ivory Coast 89-77 with Yago Santos scoring 24 points and adding 12 assists
The United States, which had already reached the second round, defeated Jordan 110-62 and plays Montenegro on Friday.
Ten teams had already advanced going into Wednesday’s games: The Dominican Republic, Australia, Italy, Spain, the United States, Canada, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, and Montenegro.
GROUP B — SERBIA 115, SOUTH SUDAN 83
At Manila, Jovic shot 9 of 9 from the floor as Serbia (3-0) beat South Sudan (1-2) to reach the round of 16. Bogdan Bogdanovic added 23 points and nine assists.
Jovic and Bogdanovic combined for 18 points in the first quarter as Serbia led 30-20 and steadily built its lead.
Peter Jok scored 21 points for South Sudan but Chicago Bulls guard Carlik Jones had just three points in 22 minutes.
GROUP F — GEORGIA 70, VENEZUELA 59
At Okinawa, Shengelia scored 25 points and Goga Bitadze had 11 points and 11 rebounds as Georgia advanced to the second round.
Georgia, which is playing for the first time in the World Cup, led 42-23 at the half as Venezuela (0-3) scored only four points in the second quarter.
Nestor Colmenares had 16 points and 12 rebounds to lead Venezuela. Jose Materan added 12. Both teams struggled from 3-point range. Georgia was 5 of 23 and Venezuela was 6 of 25.
GROUP C — UNITED STATES 110, JORDAN 62
At Manila, Anthony Edward scored 22 points and Bobby Portis Jr. chipped in 13 for the United States (3-0) to wrap up the group stage with an easy victory over Jordan (0-3). Josh Hart led the Americans with 12 rebounds.
Former NBA player Rondae Hollis Jefferson led Jordan with 20 points and seven rebounds. The United States faces Montenegro on Friday in the second round.
The U.S. improved to 8-0 overall this summer, counting five exhibitions played on the way to Manila.
They’re one of three teams that won all three group-stage games by at least 20 points — joining Group H winner Canada and Group D winner Lithuania.
GROUP G — BRAZIL 89, IVORY COAST 77
At Jakarta, Yago Santos scored 24 points and added 12 assists and Brazil (2-1) advanced into the second round, a bounce back after not qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics. Tim Soares added 15 points for the winners.
Brazil went 14 of 31 from 3-point range.
Cedric Bah led Ivory Coast (1-2) with 13 points and 13 rebounds.
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