MANILA (Philippines) - Dominican Republic, Italy, Puerto Rico and Serbia have put the First Round hurdle behind them and reached the Second Round Group I of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023.  Now the quartet face another challenge as only two of them will advance to the Quarter-Finals and continue to dream about the title.

Dominican Republic and Serbia won their respective Groups A and B and hold the advantage over the other two teams in Group I, which will see teams face off against the two sides from the other First Round group.

Here is a closer look at the up-coming action at the Manila Araneta Coliseum.

The Favorite - Serbia

South Sudan head coach Royal Ivey called Serbia a "well-oiled machine", and the Europeans have certainly been cruising, winning their three Group B games by an average of 30.3 points. Bogdan Bogdanovic is slowly finding his form within the team and Nikola Jovic has shown why he is one of the country's next superstars. And then Nikola Milutinov is a true force in the paint. It will be hard for Italy or Dominican Republic to knock off the Serbs.

The Underdog - Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico gave Serbia a bit of a scare with a big third quarter before falling to the European steamrollers. But Puerto Rico have shown resiliency and have benefited from a very difficult exhibition campaign - facing Dominican Republic, United States, Italy, Serbia, Lithuania and Latvia. The team has lived and died by Tremont Waters' performances but they also have solid bigs in George Conditt and Isaiah Romero plus Stephen Thompson, Isaiah Pineiro and Jordan Howard. Puerto Rico may be underdogs but they cannot be overlooked.

The Pivotal Game - Serbia v Italy

While the Americas derby between Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico is tempting, let's go with Serbia taking on Italy. Serbia not only know this will be a tough all-European showdown but they will have revenge on their minds. Serbia had won all seven of their first encounters with Italy - including winning 92-77 in the First Round of the 2019 World Cup. But Italy have picked up victories in the last two games - both being big wins.

The Italians first win over Serbia in history came in the Final of the 2020 Olympic Qualifying Tournament Belgrade Final. The Italians then reversed a 14-point deficit to beat Serbia in the Round of 16 of the FIBA EuroBasket 2022. Italy know another win over Serbia would go a long way in getting to the World Cup Quarter-Finals for the first time since 1998.

The Open Question - Can Towns and Dominicans continue roll?

Dominican Republic have been one of the fun stories of the World Cup, especially the successful return of Karl-Anthony Towns to the national team after a decade away as well as the emergence of 20-year-old guard Jean Montero alongside the sideline genius Nestor 'Che' Garcia. The Caribbean nation went undefeated in Group A and believe they can make the top eight for the first time in history. But it will not be easy.

The Poll

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