DUBAI (FIBA U17 World Championship) - One time lucky, the second time a charm as Puerto Rico continued their fairy tale debut at the 2014 FIBA U17 World Championship by knocking off their second European team in two days by beating Italy 58-51 while Australia also booked a second win in a tough fight against France.

A day after beating Spain, Puerto Rico got 20 points and 14 rebounds from Arnaldo Toro in a hard-fought win over Italy in Group C. Leandro Allende added 13 points and Ivan Gandia chipped in 11 points in the win.

The game was back and forth until the middle of the third quarter when Puerto Rico pulled ahead and never let Italy back into the game. Italy wasted a 16-point showing from Leonardo Tote, while Valerio Costa had 15 points as the team dropped to 1-1.

In the other Group C encounter, Spain rebounded from the loss to cruise past hosts United Arab Emirates (UAE) for a 138-27 win, as Oscar Amo led eight players in double figures with 23 points and 12 rebounds.

While Spain moved to 1-1, UAE dropped to 0-2.

Australia jumped to the top of Group B with a 2-0 record after an 84-81 victory over France (1-1) with Dejan Vasiljevic pacing the Oceania powers with 18 points and Harry Frohling adding a dozen.

Stephane Gombauld, who scored 23 points, missed a lay-up with nine seconds left that would have tied the game. Australian center Isaac Humphries grabbed the rebound and made one of two free-throws with 7.6 seconds for the final scoreline as Lucas Hergott missed his three-ball at the buzzer. Amine Noua added 21 points, nine rebounds, three blocks and two steals in the loss.

Canada improved to 1-1 with a dominating 96-52 defeat of winless (0-2) Japan as Jerome Desrosiers scored 20 points and Marquell Fraser had 17 points.

Serbia struggled mightily against Egypt but ended up prevailing 81-63 as the Europeans pulled away in the fourth quarter to improve to 2-0 in Group D. Nikola Rakicevic scored 14 points for the Serbs, who also got 13 points each from Aleksandar Aranitovic and Vanja Marinkovic. Ahmed Metwaly scored 16 points for Egypt, who dropped to 0-2 as they played their second straight game without leader Mohamed Abdelrahman.

The other Group D game saw Argentina beat China 75-70 to improve to 2-0. Argentina used a 14-1 run at the beginning of the third quarter to grab control of the game but watched as China fought back from a nine-point deficit in the final minutes with Yanhao Zhao nailing back-to-back three-balls to knot the game at 68-68. But Augustin Mas Delfino hit a three-pointer and a lay-up in the final minute to give Argentina the win.

In Group A, the two-time reigning undefeated champions USA cruised past Angola for their second straight win, 99-56. Harry Giles paced four players in double figures with 14 points. Five more Americans scored at least eight points.
U17 Worlds debutants Angola dropped to 1-1 despite 17 points from Silva De Sousa.

Greece picked up their first win in knocking off Philippines 85-65 with Antonios Pefanis scoring 26 points, while Greek leaders Vasileios Charlamapopoulos and Georgios Papagiannis combined for just three points in a total of 14 minutes of action between them.

The Championship takes a day off on Sunday before the third set of group play games resume on Monday.

FIBA