Ammon News - KAYSERI, Turkey (Agencies) - Angola bounced back from a 50-point loss to Serbia and defeated Jordan 79-65 at the World Basketball Championship.

Jordan (0-2) was coming off a close loss to Australia and kept things tight again until fading in the fourth quarter against the African champion on Sunday.

Miguel Lutonda of Angola led all scorers with 16 points, including some key baskets in the fourth. Angola tied the game at the end of the third quarter and was up by 10 with five minutes remaining. Jordan never came closer than five after that.

In other matches on Sunday, Serbia beat Germany 82-81 in another Group A match.

In Group B, USA defeated Slovenia 99-77 and Croatia beat Iran 75-54.

In Group C China beat Ivory Coast 83-73 and Greece defeated Puerto Rico 83-80.

In Group D, Lithuania overcame Canada 70-68 and France beat Lebanon 89-56.

France condemn champions Spain to opening defeat

On Saturday, France stunned world and European champions Spain 72-66 as the world basketball championships got off to a sensational start.

With as many as five frontline players opting not to play for France in Turkey, the side had been given little chance of going far.

But after their shock Group D result, they are now in a prime position to advance to the second round.

“They are the best in the world. It was great to play Spain first as we had to jump straight into the tournament. It has given us great confidence,” said French player Nicolas Batum.

Earlier in the day it looked like an even bigger upset was set to take place in Kayseri as Australia were forced to rally hard to overcome a spirited Jordanian side.

Jordan, ranked just 38 in the world, had been written off as one of the easy beats of the tournament.

But that meant little to the Jordanians who raced out to an 11-point lead early in the game and were 39-32 ahead at the half-time break.

However, Australia fought back to claim the game by a mere point, 76-75 in the last seconds when David Andersen drew a foul. He made certain of his two free-throws, to help Australia pull off a lucky escape.

“We really clawed our way back in to the game tonight and found a way to win,” said Australia coach Brett Brown.

“I thought that showed tremendous guts and character. That game was going south and we needed our bigs to step up and they did just that.”

Serbia did not suffer from the same problems as Australia and Argentina recording the biggest win of opening day hammering Angola 94-44 to sit atop of the group.

The other favourites in Turkey had a relatively easy day as USA, Greece, and Brazil all starting their campaigns with few concerns.

USA coach Mike Krzyzewski was able to use his full roster, as the US got their campaign off on the right foot with a 107-78 win over Croatia as they look to win the world championships for first time since 1992.

They looked sluggish early, only carrying a two-point lead into the second period but this was as close as the Croats would be for the remainder of the game.

After the game, USA team member Chauncey Billups admitted that USA “got off to a rough start but stayed patient and stayed aggressive but the game opened in the second quarter and we never looked back”.

Greece did not have too many problems overcoming China 89-81 to open Group C action in Ankara.

Although the Chinese were able to come back within three points with a period left to play, Greece never really looked in trouble as China struggled to fill the gap left by the absent national star Yao Ming.

China’s only NBA player at the tournament Yi Jianlian Yi led his team at both ends of the court with a game high 26 points and 14 rebounds.

“We fought hard. We kept the battle going. They missed some rebounds and we missed some points,” said China coach Bob Donewald.

“I think we played with good purpose but we weren’t able to win. We are a young team. Young teams keep their head up, bounce back and make mistakes. As you saw we had some good moments and some bad moments at the game. Yi had a great performance. He gave us all we asked from him.”

In the other two Group C games, Turkey were able to give their home fans plenty to cheer about, seeing off the Ivory Coast 86-44 in front of a raucous home crowd, while Russia looked dangerous in defeating a fancied Puerto Rico side 75-66.

Brazil were the last team to finish in Group B, finding trouble in accounting for Iran 81-65.



Photo Credit: Jordan's Zaid Abbaas goes to the basket against Angola's Joaquim Gomes (back) during their FIBA Basketball World Championship game in Kayseri on Sunday (Reuters photo)