Brazil holds off France, Croatia edges the Philippines at Basketball World Cup

Marcelinho Huertas had 16 points and five assists, and Brazil held on to edge France 65-63 on Saturday in its opening game at the Basketball World Cup.

Boris Diaw of the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs had 15 points, six rebounds and five assists for the European champions, but the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Anderson Varejao blocked his three-point attempt as time expired in the Group A game.

Serbia beat Egypt 85-64 in the opening game in Granada, while host Spain played Iran at night.

Bojan Bogdanovic of the Brooklyn Nets scored 26 points to help Croatia pull out an 81-78 victory over the Philippines, which got 28 points and 12 rebounds from American Andray Blatche, their naturalized player. Blatche played last season with the Nets but doesn’t have an NBA contract for next season.

Also in Group B in Seville, Luis Scola of the Indiana Pacers had 20 points and nine rebounds to power Argentina past Puerto Rico, 98-75. Andres Nocioni added 18 points and 11 rebounds, while New York Knicks guard and fellow longtime Argentine star Pablo Prigioni chipped in nine points and 10 assists.

Greece met Senegal in the late game.

The defending champion U.S. played Saturday night against Finland in Group C. Earlier at Bilbao, Turkey rallied with a big fourth quarter to beat New Zealand 76-73; and Ukraine got 16 points from Pooh Jeter to beat Dominican Republic 72-62.

Goran Dragic of the Phoenix Suns had 21 points and seven rebounds to lead Slovenia to a 90-80 victory over Australia in Group D. Angola started the action in the Canary Islands by downing South Korea 80-69, while Lithuania and Mexico met in the late game.