Argentina steams ahead in men’s basketball

Luis Scola scored 22 points to help Argentina beat winless Nigeria 93-79 in the men’s Olympic basketball tournament yesterday.

Carlos Delfino finished with 18 points and Andrés Nocioni added 17 for Argentina, who quickly took control of the game and raced to a 37-19 lead at the end of the first quarter. Argentina (3-1) led by as many as 26 before taking a 57-37 lead at halftime.

Nocioni and Leonardo Gutiérrez each hit all three of their 3-point attempts as Argentina were eight for 11 from beyond the arc in the first half and made 10 of 16 3-pointers during the game.

Ike Diougu led Nigeria with 16 points and Derrick Obasohan had 15. Nigeria were coming off an 83-point loss to the US.

Argentina play the US tomorrow.

LeBron James provided the big plays down the stretch to help the United States escape with a 99-94 win over Lithuania and remain unbeaten — barely.

There was no such escape for Spain, silver medalist four years ago in Beijing and seen by many as a likely challenger for the star-studded US team in the final.

Russia’s 77-74 victory over the two-time European champions meant that the Russians secured top place in Group B — and avoided a potential matchup with the heavily favoured US team until the gold medal game.

Timofey Mozgov made the tiebreaking dunk with 18 seconds left and Vitaliy Fridzon, the hero of Russia’s victory over Brazil on Thursday, made the clinching free throws with 4.8 seconds left after the Russians had charged back from an 18-point deficit. Fridzon scored 24 points. The Russians did even better. Any meeting now — assuming the US win Group A as expected — wouldn’t happen until August 12 in a rematch of the 1972 title game.

It was Spain’s first loss in the Olympics to a team other than the US since 2000, and now risk having to meet the US in the semifinals.

Marquinhos Vieira scored 14 points and Leandro Barbosa added 13 for Brazil to rout China 98-59 and reach the quarterfinals from Group B. Brazil are 3-1 in Group B, while China fell to 0-4.

Patty Mills scored a tournament-high 39 points as Australia beat Britain 106-75 to earn a spot in the quarterfinals.

In the early game, Tony Parker scored 22 points and Nicolas Batum added 19 as France beat Tunisia 73-69 for its third straight victory.