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The Dominican Republic overcame a foul-plagued effort by Karl-Anthony Towns to reach the knockout stage of the FIBA World Cup with Tuesday’s 75-67 victory over Angola.
Towns picked up three fouls in the opening four minutes and finished with eight points and two rebounds in just over 15 minutes of game action. The Minnesota Timberwolves‘ star averaged 25 points and 10.5 rebounds in the first two games.
But despite the low-scoring output from Towns, Andres Feliz scored 17 points and Victor Liz added 13 for the Dominican Republic, which finished 3-0 in Group A.
“We got the win and [the] Dominican Republic is going crazy right now,” said Towns, who was seen celebrating with fans in videos that circulated on social media. “We have a special team. Everyone counted us out and didn’t think we could be great.”
Australia and Italy also advanced to the knockout stage Tuesday; 10 teams have reached the final 16 with six more berths to be determined Wednesday.
Australia, the Olympic bronze medalist two years ago in Tokyo, defeated Japan 109-89 despite 33 points from American-born Japan center Josh Hawkinson. Australia finished second in Group E behind Germany.
Italy took second place in Group A with a 90-83 victory over the Philippines, the main host country for the World Cup that needed to win by a lopsided margin to advance.
The United States, defending champion Spain, Canada, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Montenegro also have advanced.
The Dominican Republic struggled offensively without Towns, shooting just 40.7% (22-for-54) from the floor and making 5-of-25 attempts from 3-point range.
“[We] practice with one of the best coaches in the world with ‘Che’ [Garcia],” Towns said. “We believed that we could do something amazing. I think the world is going to notice now.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.