2018 Under-17 World Cup Day Three Recap
It was the last day of the group stage at the Under-17 World Cup, and all sixteen teams looked to bow out with a good result and give themselves the best shot at making it through the tournament's knockout phase.
Group A
Turkey heavily outscored Dominican Republic and shut them out with a great show of defensive rebounding. Mustafa Kurtuldum had 31 points and his team mate Fukran Haltali finished with 16 as well as 11 assists in Turkey’s impressive 95-62 win over the Dominican Republic.
In the matchup between the group's two undefeated players, Puerto Rico trailed Australia for much of the way, but after eight unanswered points down the stretch they went up by five. Australia levelled the scoreline with less then two minutes left, and a layup from Luke Travers with six seconds left on the clock won them the game by two points.
This left Australia, Puerto Rico and Turkey with the same 2-1 record, but with the best results between the three, Puerto Rico topped the group thanks to their big win over Turkey, which in turn left them in third, with Australia between the two.
Group C
Canada made it three-for-three with a comfortable 97-61 win over New Zealand, in which Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe came off the bench to score sixteen points and grab seven rebounds.
Meanwhile, Egypt took a double-digit lead over Montenegro just after half time, but by making the most of possession, working the defensive boards and shooting well from the field, Montenegro re-took the lead late in the game and went on to win by ten. Youssef Elmadawy was the standout with 23 points and 15 rebounds for Egypt.
Group B
Mali left it late, but got their first win of the tournament over China by twelve points, hitting early and often at the top of the key and showing good hustle on both ends of the floor. Sun Haoqin had 25 points for China, while Siriman Kanoute and Oumar Ballo both went one better with 26, as well as an amazing 19 rebounds for Ballo.
Serbia did their best to put the USA to the sword - outscoring them from long range and showing good defensive hustle - but the Americans were dominant in the field, with 54 points in the paint, and kept piling the points on at the end to finish the group unbeaten with a final 93-61 win.
Group D
To begin with, France and Croatia looked evenly matched, though France had the edge in the scoreline. Just before the end of the third quarter, Croatia flatlined, and France took advantage. Going on an eighteen-point unanswered run, France won the game by 79 points to 51, securing the top spot in the group.
Argentina led by eleven early on, but there was no let up by the Philippines, who kept it a tight game for the remainder. Terrence Fortea hit one of his five threes with less than thirty seconds left in the game to make it a three-point game. Fortunately for Argentina, that would be the last shot made in the game, and they celebrated their first win at their home tournament.
The results here mean the games in the first round of the knockout stage will be:
Australia (A2) vs Mali (B3)
Canada (C1) vs Philippines (D4)
Dominican Republic (A4) vs USA (B1)
Egypt (C3) vs Croatia (D2)
Puerto Rico (A1) vs China (B4)
Montenegro (C2) vs Argentina (D3)
Turkey (A3) vs Serbia (B2)
New Zealand (C4) vs France (D1)
All games in the round of sixteen will be played tomorrow. Until then, for more information and full stats on all the group games, visit the official website of the Under-17 World Cup.
