Australia beat Japan to battle into the next round of the Basketball World Cup on Tuesday, while Germany, the Dominican Republic, Lithuania and Canada all advanced with perfect records.
Italy, Montenegro and Latvia joined them in the next phase, while France salvaged a measure of pride after its shock early exit with a hard-fought win over Lebanon.
Australia needed to beat Japan after its narrow loss to Germany on Sunday and it rose to the occasion against the tournament co-host in Okinawa, winning 109-89.
Head coach Brian Goorjian said the Boomers were “playing for their life”.
“I’m happy to move to this next stage with this group because I think we’re getting better as the tournament goes on,” he said.
“I know we lost to Germany but I thought it was one of the best games played in this whole tournament. We went up another level tonight.”
Josh Giddey scored 26 points and had 11 assists and five rebounds for Australia in another impressive performance from the 20-year-old. Xavier Cooks scored 24 and had 16 rebounds.
Goorjian said his team was “going through evolution” after winning bronze at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago.
“As they get experience in international basketball, we’re going to get better and better,” he said.
Germany joined Australia in the next round as Group E winner after a 101-75 thrashing of Finland.
A typhoon is forecast to hit Okinawa when its play their next game on Friday but head coach Gordon Herbert was unconcerned.
“We heard there might be one 10 days ago, and I guess there’s one coming Friday,” he said.
“Hopefully we’re the typhoon on Friday night.”
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