Olympics Roundup: Germany, France get key wins
After a day off, the 2020 Olympic Men’s Basketball Tournament resumed with four more first-round games on Wednesday at Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo, Japan. The day started with Germany winning its first game at the Olympics since 2008 and continued with the United States reaching the Group A win column with a blowout over Iran. Australia outlasted Italy in a close one, and France topped the Czech Republic to remain undefeated in Group A.
France vs. Czech Republic 97-77
France remained undefeated by topping the Czech Republic 77-97 on Wednesday. France improved to 2-0 and qualified to the quarterfinals while the Czech Republic dropped to 1-1. Evan Fournier led the winners with 21 points. Nando De Colo added 17 and 8 assists, and Vincent Poirier had 14 points while his Real Madrid teammate Thomas Heurtel got 11 and 7 assists for Les Bleus.
Jan Vesely led the Czech Republic with 19 points. Tomas Satoransky, Ondrej Balvin, David Jelinek, and Jakub Sirina each struck twice from downtown in the first quarter to give the Czechs a 28-22 lead after 10 minutes. But at half-time, France had a double-digit lead, 40-51. After that, De Colo got help from Nicolas Batum and Rudy Gobert to break the game open, 46-61. Poirier’s alley-oop dunk fixed the score at 56-77 after 30 minutes, and France went on to control the game in the fourth quarter.
USA vs. Iran 120-66
The USA bounced back from its initial loss in the Men’s Olympic tournament by simply overwhelming Iran 120-66 at Saitama Super Arena. Damian Lillard led 6 USA players in double digits with 21 points on 7-of-13 three-point shots. Mohammad Jamshidijafarabadi and Hamed Haddadi each had 14 points for Iran. The USA won all four quarters, getting a 60-30 lead at halftime and extending it to 82-43 after 30 minutes to cruise to a big win.
Germany vs. Nigeria 99-92
Germany burst into the Group B win column at the Olympics by rallying late to win a 92-99 shootout against Nigeria. Germany is now 1-1 in group play while Nigeria fell to 0-2.
Johannes Voigtmann led the winners with 19 points and 7 rebounds, followed closely by Moritz Wagner, who scored 17. Danilo Barthel added 13 of his 14 points in the final quarter, while Maodo Lo tallied 13 and Andreas Obst 12.
Jordan Nwora had 33 points for Nigeria.
The Germans had trailed by double digits, 68-58, with less than 15 minutes left to play before rallying to tie 74-74 at the end of three-quarters on a buzzer-beating triple by Niels Giffey. The teams were still tied, 81-81, less than 6 minutes before Germany blasted off with a 0-15 run that decided the game. It started when Barthel scored his third basket of the fourth quarter, and Giffey followed with a dunk off a steal by Obst. Barthel kept it going with a three-point play at 81-88, to which Obst added 5 points and Lo a jumper to finish the run and settle the outcome. Germany will return to action on Saturday to play Australia, with a spot in the quarterfinals likely hanging in the balance.
Australia vs. Italy 86-83
Australia stayed unbeaten in Group B by stopping Italy 83-86. Australia broke a 65-65 tie with Nick Kay’s three-pointer early in the fourth quarter. Despite Giampaolo Ricci making a layup right after that to make it 67-68, Italy went almost 5 minutes without scoring and eventually ran out of time to complete a comeback. Simone Fontecchia led Italy with 22 points, while Nico Mannion added 21, and Achille Polonara had 12. Jock Landale led Australia with 18 points, and Patty Mills added 16.