US, Australia, Croatia perfect at world juniors

2009-07-05 07:54:01 -

AUCKLAND, New Zealand (AP) - The United States, Australia and Croatia take their unbeaten records into the second round of the FIBA under-19 world basketball championships on Monday.
With all teams idle Sunday, Croatia opens Monday's schedule against Canada, Australia takes on Kazakhstan and the U.S. plays Greece. All three teams have 3-0 records

after the preliminary round.
They are among 12 teams that advanced to the second round. Elsewhere Monday, Argentina takes on Spain, France plays Puerto Rico and Egypt faces Lithuania.
Angola, Iran, Syria and host New Zealand failed to advance past the 16-team preliminary round which ended Saturday.
The top four teams in each of two six-team groups will advance to Friday's quarterfinals. There are further second-round games on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The semifinals are scheduled for Saturday and the gold- and bronze-medal finals for next Sunday.
On Saturday, center Mario Delas scored 27 points as 18th-ranked Croatia upset No. 1 Argentina 75-63.
The 6'10» (208-centimeter) Delas made 10 of 12 field goals, both three-pointers and hauled down eight rebounds. He leads the tournament with a 24.7 points-per-game average.
The U.S. completed a sweep of its pool matches when it beat Egypt 112-55. Ashton Gibbs scored 18 points, Shelvin Mack 14 and John Shurna had 13 points and six rebounds as the U.S, finished at the top of Group B, ahead of France, Egypt and Iran.
Australia topped Group C with a 96-54 win over Syria. Matthew Hodgson scored 17 points and Mitchell Young 14 for Australia.
Lithuania beat Greece 85-70 to finish at the top of Group A. In the tightest of the four groups, Lithuania, Puerto Rico and Greece all finished with 2-1 records and the top three placings were decided on points differential.
Kazakhstan beat New Zealand 90-83 to finish third in Group D behind Croatia and Argentina, knocking the hosts out of the tournament.