ARG - Scola adds fizz as Argentina roll past Venezuela

SANTA FE (Super Four) - Argentina continued their preparations for the FIBA World Championship by thrashing Venezuela in their opening game of the Super Four tournament.

Sergio Hernandez’s men showed no mercy to their opponents, running out 94-55 winners over the Vinotintos to set up a final with Brazil.

Top scorer Luis Scola`s 25 points and eight rebounds was the outstanding tally of the night, with Andres Nocioni contributing another 12 points in what was otherwise an impressive team display.

After the Olympic champions established a 33-point lead at the end of the third quarter, Hernandez threw on some reserves, like Hernan Jasen, Carlos Delfino, Daniel Farabello and Juan Gutierrez, who increased the margin to 40 points.

The final 39-point victory was Argentina`s second win over Venezuela, one of their opponents in Group A, in the past week following Friday`s 96-82 triumph and bodes well for next month`s international showpiece in Japan.

Hernandez insists his squad still has plenty of time before he selects his final World Championship party.

“The World Championship squad will be defined a bit later, not in these days,” he said. “After these friendlies, we have a new game against New Zealand in Buenos Aires before flying to Madrid.

“It doesn’t mean that we’ll play all the friendlies with the 15 players of the preliminary squad. Perhaps we play the final one with less men.

It’ll be a very difficult decision for me, because this is a very even squad.”

As well as the humiliating defeat, Venezuela suffered an injury to key man Hector Romero only nine seconds into the game. Romero required surgery on an elbow injury following a foul by Manu Ginobili and will miss the World Championship.

A South American derby with Brazil awaits Argentina in the Super Four final after the Verdeamarelos beat New Zealand 83-79.

Anderson Varejao netted 20 points for Aluisio ‘Lula’ Ferreira`s side, while Alex contributed 13 coming off the bench, and Marcelinho Machado added 12.

The Tall Blacks could have sent the game to overtime but two players missed two two-pointers in the final seconds of the game.

They will now play a third-place play-off game against Venezuela.

From PA Sport, Sante Fe
Exclusively for FIBA