Group A of the Olympic basketball tournament reaches the half-way point with France, Serbia, Australia and USA all in action with China and Venezuela ending day five as the latter two teams aim to secure their first win of the Rio Games.
PARKER MAGIC LIFTS FRANCE PAST SERBIA
Tony Parker might be in the last stages of his international career, but that doesn’t mean that he has stopped creating magic Olympic moments.
Parker drained an off-balance three-pointer with 31 seconds left to hand Les Bleus a come-from-behind 76-75 win over Serbia at the Carioca Arena to go to 2-1 in Group A.
But, Parker’s heroics nearly meant nothing as a poor turnover from Bogdan Bogdanovic gave the French a chance to seal the game with six seconds left but Nicholas Batum missed the lay-up with seconds remaining giving Serbia a last roll of the dice. Bogdanovic’s three-pointer though missed the mark.
CSKA Moscow’s Nando De Colo led France with 22 points as France hand Serbia their second loss from three games.
USA BEAT BOOMERS IN PHYSICAL ENCOUNTER
The USA have ended Australia’s unbeaten start to the Rio Olympics but they were made to work hard for their third straight win.
Carmelo Anthony hit a game-high 31 points and Kyrie Irving was dominant in the final period as the USA came back from a 54-49 first half deficit and eventually defeated Australia 98-88.
Despite losing the battle, the Boomers showed the international basketball community that the Americans can be competed with, it’s just a matter of showing them no fear and playing your game. They nearly pulled it off until Anthony and Irving displayed their superstar credentials.
VENEZUELA SECURE FIRST WIN IN RIO
There was joy all-round the Carioca Arena as Venezuela claimed their first win of the Rio Olympics after a narrow 72-68 win over China, who drop to 0-3.
With Venezuela up 70-66 and 3.8 seconds left, Nestor Colmenares fouled Zhou Peng on a three-point attempt and the Chinese forward made the first two but missed the third. Vargas grabbed the rebound, was fouled and hit both his foul shots for the final score.
Colmenares hit 16 points to lead the South Americans.
Photo: FIBA
