July 16, 2007
Texas A&M's DeAndre Jordan scored six points in just six minutes of play to help Team USA to an 82-78 victory against host Serbia on Monday at the U19 World Championships.
The United States (3-0) advances to the second round at the top of Group B.
"I have great respect for Serbian basketball," USA and DePaul Head Coach Jerry Wainwright said. "I am 60 years old and spent many years in my past with clinics and recruiting in Europe. Their coaches are great teachers. They make great adjustments in games. Their teams are very disciplined and very physical. His team would be a very good college team in America. His inside players were tremendous, physical and they finished plays. They are very well coached and they did a great job moving the basketball. We learned a lot in playing against Serbia and hopefully it?â„¢ll help us in the next round."
Stephen Curry led Team USA with 19 points while Jonny Flynn scored 12 points.
The USA headed into the fourth quarter with a 64-50 cushion, but Jordan already had four fouls and several other American players had three. Serbia pounded it inside to start the fourth quarter and by the 8:41 mark the lead had shriveled to 66-55. With the U.S. struggling, Serbia inched closer, knotting the game at 75-75 before the United States pulled away late.
In other preliminary round play Australia (3-0) beat Canada (1-2) 81-70, Brazil (2-1) downed Lithuania (1-2) 81-75, France (3-0) leveled Lebanon (0-3) 100-58, China (1-2) won against Mali (0-3) 59-46, Turkey (2-1) took care of business against Nigeria (0-3) 91-82, Spain (3-0) conquered Korea (1-2) 97-80, while Argentina (2-1) put away Puerto Rico (0-3) 112-72.