FIBA World Cup: Serbia Beats Team USA To Compete For Fifth Place

Serbia claimed a 94 - 89 victory over Team USA in the qualifiers with Sacramento Kings player Bogdan dropping in 28 points, four rebounds, and six assists.

Team USA's defeat followed their exit from the World Cup title race after losing to France by 89-79 that saw their bid for third successive title race forfeited. The loss registered as their first back-to-back defeat after a 58-game winning streak from 2002.

A terrible sloppy start from the Americans had already dealt a huge blow to their chances and despite making a resurgence in the second half, they could not recover they damage already done in the second half.

Entering into the decider, the Americans closed the gap but that effort was quickly overridden by the Serbians pushing the margin even further to 10 points lead with 7.20 minutes left to play.

With less than 2 minutes left to play, Kemba Walker made an effort to bring the Americans into the game, knocking down two three-pointer back-to-back and Myles Turner converted two free-points to trail the East European side 5 points but as it was just 11 seconds left to play, a defeat was inevitable.

Nikola Jovic of Denver Nugget troubled the Americans in the back and the combination of Bogdan and Lucic Vladimir helped the Serbians establish control over Team USA with Lucic dropping in 15 points to trail the Sacramento star in the stats.

"The Serbian team are very experienced. They are not just talented, they played the game in a fantastic manner," Team USA head coach Jeff Van Gundy admitted afterwards.

Harrison Barnes led the standouts for Team USA with 22 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Walker added up 18 points, four rebounds and eight assists to take second place in the stats for the side which had four players making double-figure points.

Having lost the game, the USA got a notch down and will be relegated to seventh place whilst the Serbian team will place for the fifth place at the FIBA World Cup in China.