Deck spurs Argentina past Venezuela to book Quarter-Final slot

FOSHAN (China) - Gabriel Deck put up an incredible performance with 25 points and four rebounds as Argentina improved their unbeaten run to 4-0 at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 on Friday at the Foshan International Sports and Cultural Arena. 

This is Deck's highest tally in the prestigious blue and white jersey - one point more than his previous count against Dominican Republic during the Pan American Games in Lima. 

Sergio Hernandez's side saw off a hard fighting Venezuela side 87-67 in what was a tightly contested in the beginning but later on a one-sided affair as the Argentinians showed as to why they are the best side in the South Americas. 

Luis Scola was just being Luis Scola scoring 15 points and picking 6 rebounds as eventual TCL Player of the Game Facundo Campazzo added 12 points and 9 rebounds. Patricio Garino found his way to the statistics board with 10 points. 

Turning Point: Even though Venezuela threw everything on the court from the onset, Argentina looked a mile away throughout the game. It looked like a matter of time that Argentina would emerge victorious in this South American affair. 

TCL Player of the Game: Facundo Campazzo with 12 points and 9 rebounds stood out for Argentina, going 4-of-4 from the free-throw line. His defense is something to write home about as well and since it cannot be measured in figures, there you have it. This is his second individual award in China so far. 

Stats Don't Lie: Argentina converted an impressive 27-of-29 on the charity line - a 93.1 percent accuracy as compared to 9-of-11 for Venezuela who committed 24 team fouls. 

Bottom Line: Argentina have booked their spot in the Quarter-Finals thanks to an unbeaten run so far at the World Cup and with this have achieved the first of their many objectives in China. 

They Said: "We are very happy about today's game. We think that Venezuela is a very good team. They fight hard. They compete. They have a very good chance. They came all the way up here and beat China which is the home team. They play well. They had great expectations so we were expecting them to be tough. They wanted to qualify to the next round so they were not going to let it sleep like that." - Argentina Luis Scola

"Before the game, we knew that the game will be a very hard game because we know each other and play against them so much.We know that they are very play aggressive. This is very crazy. Luis told me to stay calm and we shall win and now we win. We are really happy to be among the best eight teams in the world again." - Argentina coach Sergio Hernandez

"I want to thank God. We are a group. We are a family. Everything was for Him and Venezuela. We need to improve. We played hard today. They beat us on the court. They beat us with a plan. We will regroup because we have one more game to play against Russia." - Venezuela power forward Michael Carrera

"I believe we need 20 more games like this to grow as a national team. Tonight, we could not execute our defensive style. Argentina played the way they play and we fought but we were behind on the score board." - Venezuela coach Fernando Hector Duro 

FIBA