After nearly upsetting the Stars & Stripes in an exhibition game a few weeks ago, the South Sudan Bright Stars had another chance to make history on Wednesday in the Olympic rematch. Unfortunately for former Auburn Tiger [autotag]JT Thor[/autotag] and his teammates Wednesday’s 103-86 loss was never very close.
Despite receiving the fourth most minutes out of all South Sudan players in the exhibition, Thor played just 15 minutes on Wednesday. However, he was able to put up some solid statistics in those limited minutes. The 6-9 forward hammered down 7 points while also providing the lightning on the defensive side with a block, a steal, and 4 rebounds.
Exhibition star Marial Shayok, who led all scorers with 24 in the one-point loss, scored just 12 points on 4-15 from the field on Wednesday. 29-year-old forward Nuni Omot scored the most out of any Bright Star, and any player in the game, with 24 of his own. As for Team USA, center Bam Adebayo and forward Kevin Durant led the way with 18 and 14 points, respectively.
South Sudan heads into a “win and you are in” showdown against Nikola Jokic and Serbia on Saturday. The winning country will secure the No. 2 spot in Group C behind USA, while the loser would finish third, behind Team USA, and the winning side, and ahead of Puerto Rico. Serbia’s current point differential (+15) gives it a likely spot as a “wild card” team in the quarterfinals even with a loss. At the same time, South Sudan (-6 ) could only afford to lose by a single point to stay ahead of Greece (-8) to capture the tiebreaker.
Thor and the Bright Stars will try to give South Sudan its first-ever knockout round bid on Saturday at 2 PM CST.
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