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Americans breeze past Senegal, will play Australia in quarterfinals

3 min read

SAPPORO, Japan (AP) – Dwyane Wade had the night off, and the rest of the Americans essentially got a breather, too. Chris Bosh scored 20 points, LeBron James added 17 in limited duty, and the United States coasted past Senegal 103-58 Thursday night to complete an unbeaten run through pool play at the world championships.

The Group D champions were to depart Friday morning for Saitama, where they will face Australia, the fourth-place team from Group C, on Sunday in the round of 16.

That will surely be more difficult than this one, in which the Americans led by as many as 45 against the overmatched African runner-up.

James scored 15 points in 13 minutes of the first half, then sat along with Carmelo Anthony for the first seven minutes of the third quarter and returned for only a few minutes. Anthony finished with 12 points and played sparingly, one night after setting an American record with 35.

Elhadji N’doye scored 25 points for Senegal (0-5), the last-place team in Group D.

The Americans were coming off their toughest test of the tournament, needing huge second halves from Anthony and Wade to help them rally from a 12-point deficit to beat Italy 94-85 on Wednesday.

But Wade, who appeared to land on his hand after a hard foul during that victory, wasn’t needed this time. He showed up on the court a little more than 15 minutes before the tip and stretched, but otherwise just watched his teammates – disappointing the fans who were chanting for him to play with about 4 minutes remaining in the game.

Wade eventually stood and waved, drawing a loud roar.

Anthony started the game alongside him on the bench. With nothing at stake, U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski sent out a lineup that included Brad Miller – who had played in only two of the first four games – along with usual reserves Joe Johnson, Kirk Hinrich and Antawn Jamison.

The Americans got off to a bit of a slow start and trailed by one midway through the first quarter. A 19-0 run gave them a 31-13 lead early in the second, and after that Krzyzewski was able to mix and match while making sure his stars didn’t play too much in his team’s fifth game in six nights.

Every U.S. player except for Elton Brand, who played only 3 minutes in the first half, had scored by the break. Anthony’s 3-pointer with under 4 seconds to go gave the Americans a 58-24 lead at the break.

Bosh, seeing limited time in Krzyzewski’s 10-man rotation for most of pool play, scored 15 points in the second half. He made a pair of free throws to give the Americans a 101-58 lead with 2:04 remaining, and Jamison followed with a bucket 30 seconds later to give the Americans their largest lead.

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