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Argentina holds on for vital World Cup win over the Philippines

Xinhua, September 2, 2014 Adjust font size:

Argentina won its second game of the FIBA Basketball World Cup as it defeated the Philippines 85-81 on Monday.

Argentina went into the match after Sunday's defeat to Croatia needing to convince, but found itself holding on in the last quarter despite another match winning display from Luis Scola.

Sunday saw Scola net 30 points, and he followed that up with 19 against the Philippines who could have won the match as it had a higher percent on field goals and who was also more effective in the perimeter shooting, netting 48 percent of its three point throws to 39 percent from Argentina.

The Philippines knew anything other than a win would leave it struggling to make the last 16 and took the first quarter 25-22, before Argentina's defense got on top and restricted it to just 13 points in the second period.

That was decisive as Scola and company led by 71-61 at the end of the 3rd period and the Philippines pressed hard in the closing stages, narrowing the gap to just 2 points with 25 seconds to go, although Argentina was able to hold on.

Gorgui Deng produced a colossal performance to give Senegal a shock win over Group B favorites, Croatia.

Croatia had gone into its third Group B game on the back of a win over Argentina, while Senegal had taken a moral boosting victory, its first in a World Cup final stage since 1998, by defeating a fancied Puerto Rico.

Monday saw Deng score 27 points in a game Senegal, who used its inside play to great effect, but also had almost 50 percent efficiency on its three-point throws, led by nine at the end of the second quarter and was then able to hang on as the Croatians fought back in the last 20 minutes, although for once Croatia's guards had an off day outside of the zone, hitting only 7 out of 25 attempts at 3-points.

Hamed Haddadi showed why the NBA star is a national hero in Iran as he single handedly tried to lead his country to victory against Serbia. Haddadi netted 29 points as Iran performed creditable, but still lost its Group A game 83-70 to Serbia, who needed the win after Sunday's narrow defeat to France. Endite

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