Serbia puts nightmarish end to Dominican Republic's dream FIBA WC run with KO game blowout

Karl-Anthony Towns can't help but just witness Nikola Milutinov score a slam. FIBA

By Ivan Saldajeno

QUEZON CITY--Serbia stomped its dominance on the Dominican Republic en route to a 112-79 rout in their FIBA World Cup Round of 16 game on Sunday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Serbia notched the seventh seat in the quarterfinals in style by putting a nasty end to what had been an inspiring run by the Dominican Republic.

Serbia quickly blew the game wide open by surging to a 29-11 lead late in the first quarter, and the team never looked back from there.

Bogdan Bogdanovic played a perfect game with 20 points on 7-for-7 field goals alongside one rebound, five assists, and three steals to lead Serbia, which finished second in Group I.

Vanja Marinkovic and Nikola Milutinov each added 16 points for Serbia, which will play the winner of the United States-Lithuania game in the quarterfinals on Tuesday night at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

Karl-Anthony Towns put up 25 points, seven rebounds, one assist, one block, and one steal for the Dominican Republic, which ended its campaign with back-to-back losses after a 3-0 start.

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