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US thrash Angola

US thrash Angola

09/06/2010 09:25:12 PM

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The US set up a quarter-final showdown with Russia after thrashing Angola 121-66 at the FIBA World Basketball Championships.

Angola never really looked like threatening the Americans, and the contest was effectively over at the main break with the US up 65-38.

Chauncey Billups led the way with 19 points, while Kevin Durant, Eric Gordon and Rudy Gay added 17 each.

Despite the apparent ease of the victory, US head coach Mike Krzyzewski said the match had been a good challenge for his players.

"We have great respect for Angola. I coached against them at the Olympics and they played us a great game," Krzyzewski said.

"We showed some of that game to my players and they responded. We were very unselfish, we had 30 assists. We stayed aggressive for the whole game."

Russia were given a much sterner test in their match on Monday, before eventually running out 78-56 winners over New Zealand.

After a tight first half the Russians broke the game open in the third quarter when New Zealand stars Kirk Penney and Mika Vukona were benched for collecting four fouls each.

That gave the Russians a chance to take control and, led by Andrey Vorontsevich, they went on a 13-0 run that put the match beyond New Zealand's reach.

Russian coach David Blatt was thrilled with the defensive effort of his players and full of praise for a gritty New Zealand side.

"Big congratulations to my players. They played a wonderful game in a pressure situation. We played a tremendous defensive game, we followed the game plan perfectly from a defensive standpoint," Blatt said.

"We held them to 56 when they usually score 85 a game, and that is no easy task against a well coached team that run offensive sets that are far more sophisticated than most teams here, and have a game-breaker like Kirk Penney."

 


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