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A22 sports
Friday 13 September 2019
U.S. loses to Serbia 94-89, assuring worst big-tourney finish

By TIM REYNOLDS rest of the way.U.S. coach
AP Basketball Writer Gregg Popovich lauded his
DONGGUAN, China (AP) team for making the come-
— The U.S. came to China back, basically 24 hours af-
looking to again be the ter seeing its medal hopes
best in the world. dashed by the quarterfinal
It will go home with the loss to France. “I can’t tell
worst tournament showing you how much I’ve been
in program history. impressed the whole time
Such is the reality for the with their character, their
Americans now, assured of stick-to-itiveness and their
finishing no better than sev- persistence as they’re
enth at the World Cup after learning how to play to-
falling to Serbia 94-89 in a gether,” Popovich said.
consolation game Thurs- “Tonight was a great ex-
day night. The previous ample of that.”
worst finish for a U.S. men’s TIP-INS
team in major tournament U.S.: Jayson Tatum (left an-
appearances was sixth at kle) and Marcus Smart (left
the 2002 world champi- hand) were out with inju-
onships. “We’ve commit- ries, and neither is expect-
ted to this from Day One,” ed to play in the finale Sat-
U.S. guard Joe Harris said. urday. ... Before now, the
“To get all the way to this United States’ coach Gregg Popovich, left talks to United States’ Donovan Mitchell, center and last time the U.S. dropped
point and just kind of have United States’ Kemba Walker at right for the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Dongguan in southern consecutive games at the
it abruptly come up short, it China’s Guangdong province on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2019. World Cup level was 2002
really stings.” Associated Press at the world champion-
The Americans — the top- stepped up to the plate trying to make people hap- be away from their fami- ships in Indianapolis, losing
ranked team in the world when others stepped py.” A Serbia-U.S. game lies, away from their teams, to Argentina by seven and
— will be seventh or eighth down. We qualified our na- was widely expected to away from their organiza- Yugoslavia by three. The
in China, depending on tion for the Olympics,” U.S. be one for gold this week- tions,” Barnes said. “There’s only time the Americans
the outcome of their con- center Myles Turner wrote end. The prospects of that no regrets.” lost three straight in a World
solation finale against Po- as part of a thread on Twit- were hyped plenty going Serbia led 44-40 at the half, Cup or Olympic-level tour-
land on Saturday. Harrison ter after the game. into the tournament — es- a margin that may suggest nament was at the 1970
Barnes scored 22 for the Bogdan Bogdanovic pecially after Serbia coach the first 20 minutes were of world championships.
U.S., which got 18 from scored 28 for Serbia, which Sasha Djordjevic called out the back-and-forth variety. Serbia: Vasilije Micic, whose
Kemba Walker and 16 from bolted to a 25-point lead the Americans in a televi- They were not. Instead, it mother died during this
Khris Middleton. And even and handed the U.S. its sion interview by saying “if was just two really big runs, tournament, stayed with
though this team earned second loss in two days. we meet, may God help one by each team. the team instead of go-
the U.S. a berth into the Vladimir Lucic scored 15 for them.” But all that was Serbia won the first quarter ing home early. He scored
2020 Tokyo Olympics field, Serbia, which will play for on the line Thursday night 32-7. The U.S. won the sec- 10 points. ... All-NBA cen-
Barnes noted postgame fifth place Saturday. were bragging rights and a ond quarter 33-12. Serbia ter Nikola Jokic was quiet
that Saturday’s finale may “It’s a really tough game to few world ranking points. shot 64% in the first quar- offensively, scoring nine
be the last time many play against those guys,” “There’s no regrets from ter and the U.S. shot 19%; points on 3 for 4 shoot-
members of the World Cup Bogdanovic said. “I’m sure our group in terms of what in the second quarter, it ing. He did make two free
squad get the chance to both teams were really up- we’ve given, what we’ve was the Americans shoot- throws with 20.2 seconds
play for their country. set after losing in the quar- sacrificed, the commit- ing 72%, Serbia 31%, and it left to put Serbia ahead by
“We’re also the ones who terfinals and we were just ment everyone’s made to stayed relatively tight the six.q

Higuita wins stage, Roglic moves closer to Vuelta victory

BECERRIL DE LA SIERRA, Spain (AP) — Primoz Roglic took a step closer “We need to continue our good job. Every day is important, we learned
to winning the Spanish Vuelta with a strong second-place finish on the our lesson yesterday and I expect full-gas racing every day.”
18th stage on Thursday, increasing his overall lead entering the final Valverde, the veteran Spaniard from team Movistar, moved back to
stretch of the three-week race. second overall after this third-place finish on Thursday.
Colombian Sergio Higuita won the 177.5-kilometer (110.3-mile) stage “There are two hard days left,” the 39-year-old Valverde said.
after breaking away and fending off a late charge by Roglic and Ale- “We can still win it or lose it.”
jandro Valverde. Nairo Quintana, Valverde’s teammate, had been 2:24 behind Roglic
It was the first Grand Tour stage win for the 22-year-old rider from team after a strong charge in Wednesday’s stage.
EF Education First. But the Colombian ended up losing ground and dropped to third
“I didn’t have any energy left, but I had my heart set on those dreams overall.
I’ve chased for so long,” Higuita said. Fellow Colombian Miguel Ángel López made several attacks on Thurs-
“I was very emotional at the finish line because there were so many day but couldn’t keep up with Roglic.
Colombian fans there.” He was fourth overall, more than four minutes off the lead.
Roglic, a former ski jumper from Slovenia riding for team Jumbo-Visma, “There is a lot of terrain left, with two interesting stages on which, being
increased his lead to 2 minutes, 50 seconds going into the final two strong, we can pull off something interesting,” López said.
competitive stages before the finale in Madrid on Sunday. On Friday, riders will face a flat 165.2-kilometer (102.6-mile) stage that
“It was another hard day and the team was super strong again,” Ro- will end in Toledo.q
glic said.