Day 2 of the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championships

Marko Arapovic collected a double-double to help
Croatia beat Canada on Day 2.

Reigning champions United States improved to 2-0 in Group A of the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship with a dominating victory over the Czech Republic, while France and Australia picked up their first wins in the tournament.

Dakari Johnson (16 points and 12 rebounds) and Jahlil Okafor (10 and 14) both had double-doubles to pace seven Americans in double figures in their 95-57 win over the Czechs.

The USA won the battle of the glass 64-35 and held the Czechs to just 27 per cent shooting. Martin Peterka, Radovan Kouril, Jiri Dedek and Prokop Slanina all scored 8 points for the Czechs, who dropped to 1-1.

France are second in the group with a 1-1 record after Damien Inglis collected 19 points and 11 rebounds in a 78-54 victory over Egypt. All told, five players scored in double figures for France.

“I think, most importantly, we won the game. My players are not confident, they are afraid to lose and they seem to be afraid of the competition too,” said France coach Bernard Faure.

“We needed to take Egypt seriously, which we did. We wanted to win with a large score. We managed to do that.”

Egypt dropped to 0-2 at the tournament despite 17 points from Ehab Amin while Moataz Hosny had 9 points and 7 rebounds.

Australia also picked up their first victory for a 1-1 record by cruising past China 92-55 with Dante Exum leading the way with 26 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.

Zhou Qi was China’s top scorer with 12 points along with 8 rebounds and 3 blocks. China is also 1-1 in fourth place ahead of the Czechs and Egypt.

Day 3 in Group A has France playing China; Czech Republic taking on Australia; and Egypt facing the USA.

Dakari Johnson slams one emphatically as
Team USA goes up to 2-0.

Damien Inglis led the French in a blowout
win over the Egyptians.

Dante Exum and the Aussies drubbed the Chinese to
snare their first win in Kaunas, Lithuania.

Twelve players scored in double-figures and there were 38 ties or lead changes as hosts Lithuania outlasted Korea in a game for the ages to register their first win at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship.

In Group B’s other games, Argentina upset Spain while Croatia improved to 2-0 with a win over Canada.

Zalalis (27 points and 13 rebounds) and Edvinas Seskus (25 and 15) both collected double-doubles in Lithuania’s 119-108 overtime victory over Korea, who had Heo Hoon collect 37 points, 8 assists and 7 steals and An Young Jun add 20 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks.

“I’m happy that we managed to regain our confidence. Anyway, a win is a win,” said Lithuania coach Paulius Joudis, whose team improved to 1-1 after losing in their opener to Canada.

Zalalis provided the heroics for the hosts, hitting a lay-up with 3.0 seconds left in regulation to knot the game at 100-100 and then blocked his fifth shot of the game on Heo’s layup attempt at the buzzer. Zalalis then scored eight points in the overtime session – in which the Koreans went 0-for-6 from long range.

“We played the first four quarters really well, but we missed too many shots. The most important thing is that I missed the layup (just before the buzzer). We will try our best to win the next game,” said Heo, whose team dropped to 0-2 in Group B.

Argentina, meanwhile, continued where they left off at the end of their opening loss against Croatia in beating Spain 68-58 to improve to 1-1.

Gabriel Deck, who earlier this summer guided Argentina to qualification for the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship with a fourth-place finish at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship, led all scorers with 28 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. Rodrigo Haag, also on the U18 team, added 13 points.

In their game yesterday, Argentina trailed Croatia by 31 points, but closed to within 8 points in the fourth quarter. And the South Americans resumed their excellent play in handing Spain its first defeat despite 11 points from Alberto Martin.

Croatia improved to 2-0 after getting 21 points and 11 rebounds from Mario Hezonja and 11 points and 10 rebounds from Marko Arapovic in beating Canada 66-53. Canada got 10 points from Patrick Steeves and Marial Shayok in dropping to 1-1.

On Day 3, Korea will take on Croatia, while hosts Lithuania face off against Spain and Canada do battle with Argentina.