Olympics | U.S., Serbia cruise in Paris 2024 men's basketball

LILLE, France, July 31 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. had no trouble beating South Sudan 103-86 on Wednesday at Paris 2024, while Serbia overwhelmed Puerto Rico 107-66 in the men's basketball competition here.

South Sudan, who had narrowly lost 101-100 in a warm-up against the U.S. before the Olympics, still gave the defending champions a hard time when they pulled back a 21-point deficit to 60-49 with a 13-3 run.

But their efforts fell short as the Americans had already built up a huge advantage in the first half and had enough time to regain their 20-plus-point lead in the fourth quarter.

Bam Adebayo scored 18, as six Americans had at least 10 points when the bench players contributed 66 points in total, compared to South Sudan's 14.

Serbia showed they are still among the favorites to win gold, even though they had lost 110-84 to the U.S. on Sunday. Serbia shot 71 percent in the field and dominated the board by 54-24 on rebounds.

Seven Serbians scored in double digits, led by Filip Petrusev's 15 points and nine rebounds.

In the women's competition, Laura Gil scored only two points, but the two game-winning free throws were crucial in Spain's 63-62 win over Puerto Rico.

Gil was fouled with one second to go when Spain trailed 62-61. She made both free-throws and as Arella Guirantes' desperate 3-pointer on the buzzer didn't go in, Spain pocketed their second one-point win in Group A following a 90-89 victory over China on Monday.

Megan Gustafson had 18 points and 13 rebounds, while Leonor Rodriguez added 17 points for Spain.

World runners-up China lost their second game in a row, trounced 81-59 by Serbia to languish bottom of the group.

Serbia held a slight lead in the first half before they ran away after the break, when China only scored 11 and 9 points in the last two quarters respectively.