AUCKLAND (FIBA U19 World Championship) - Argentina has recorded their second win of the FIBA U19 World Championship, defeating Kazakhstan 98-69 at the North Shore Events Centre in Auckland, New Zealand.

Much like on day one against Croatia, the inexperienced Kazakhstan side made their more fancied rivals work for the victory.

Ten points separated the teams at quarter time but consecutive three pointers from Rustem Tuleu and Alexandr Tyutyunik early in the second period kept the game close. But Argentina had all the answers and closed out the half in front, 45-31.

Argentina put their foot down early in the third quarter and both coaches then rotated their benches to gain valuable world championship court time.

Argentina won the third quarter 21-19 and the final period 32-19 to set up a likely top-of-the-pool clash with Croatia at 1:30pm Saturday.

Top scorers for the American champions were Luciano Gonzalez (16 points), game one hero Matias Nocedal (14 points, 7 rebounds) and Pablo Orlietti (13 points).

Kazakhstan now turn their attention to their match up with New Zealand at 7:30pm Saturday, which will likely decide which team will progress to the second round. Power forward Tyutyunik was their standout against Argentina with 23 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks.


Vladim Burakov, Kazakhstan coach, said :

On the game against Argentina: “The game with Croatia we did all our best. We worked 100%. But today against Argentina it was more like 80%.”

On the fade out in the last quarter: “We have most important game with New Zealand and during the third quarter (when the margin increased) I decided to rotate my bench to make sure we are at full power for our next game New Zealand, which will be our ticket to the next round.”

On his game’s lack of composure at time: “That is because Asia has a very different style of basketball and this is the first time we have met European or any other style of country, and you can see the differences right here.”

His confidence for the game against New Zealand: “We have our centre, Artyom Skornyakov, injured. If he is able to show up and step up for the game, then we are more than ready.”


Enrique Tolcachier, Argentina coach :

“It was very hard the game, because we played two games in 15 hours. New Zealand was a very tough game, but today we played better than yesterday. We make fast break and take easy basket and now we are in the second round.

Croatia is the biggest team of the tournament, they can win the championship, and we must play very smart and very hard because they have a lot of athletic players.”

FIBA