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| Mo Wagner's perfect game helped Germany stave off Dennis Schroder's off night. Kennelf Monteza |
PASAY--After playing consistently in his first five games, Dennis Schroder got into a huge scoring slump at probably the worst time possible.
Still, he had a significant contribution down the stretch to help Germany hold off Latvia.
Schroder went clutch in a way on Wednesday night and helped Germany build enough cushion to escape a late Latvia fightback for an 81-79 win in the FIBA World Cup quarterfinals at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
With Latvia closing in on Germany midway through the fourth period, Schroder scored five straight points that helped Germany rebuild a 10-point lead, 79-69, with 2:56 remaining.
However, the Toronto Raptors guard botched his golden chance to close out the game for Germany by himself as he missed a floater with seven seconds left, opening a chance for Latvia to win it outright from deep.
But Davis Bertans missed a long three at the final buzzer, letting Germany escape.
In a game where Schroder was held to just nine points on 4-of-23 shooting, Franz Wagner led Germany, which will face the United States in the semifinals on Friday night, with 16 points, eight rebounds, and three assists.
Andreas Obst added 13 points and two rebounds, while Mo Wagner and Johannes Thiemann put up perfect games.
Mo Wagner went 3-for-3 from the field and 6-for-6 from the foul line for 12 markers, and Thiemann went 4-of-4 and 2-of-2, respectively, for 10.
Arturs Zagars led Latvia, which will play Italy on Thursday night in a classification game, with 24 points, two rebounds, and eight assists, while Bertans had 20 points, two rebounds, one block, and one steal.
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