Down at half, US beats Turkey in basketball..

Basketball • Faried scores 22 points to lead Americans.

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Bilbao, Spain • They figured it would be simple, that they would just beat up on Turkey like they did Finland a night earlier.

Instead, the Americans were the ones on the ropes for nearly three quarters.

"I guess we felt like last night's game was pretty easy and tonight was going to be the same way, but Turkey came out and they gave us their punch from the beginning," forward James Harden said. "We took it and we were sluggish. That second half we played a lot better."

Kenneth Faried scored 22 points, Anthony Davis all of his 19 in the second half, and the U.S. rebounded from a rare deficit at halftime to beat Turkey 98-77 on Sunday in the Basketball World Cup.

A night after crushing Finland by 59 in its biggest rout ever while using NBA players in the former world championship, the Americans couldn't take control against Turkey until early in the fourth quarter after compiling a 17-1 run.

"I think we didn't come ready to play in the first half and we can't afford to do that if we want to win a gold medal," Davis said. "So we've got to come out ready to play no matter who we're playing against."

The Americans trailed 40-35 at halftime and Turkey led by six early in the third before the Americans could finally get the game into the quicker tempo they prefer and pull away to win the rematch of the 2010 gold-medal game in Istanbul.

But it was a much tougher one than expected after the Americans hammered Finland 114-55 while Turkey was being outplayed for most of its opener by New Zealand before pulling out the victory.

Harden added 14 points for the U.S. and Kyrie Irving added 13. —

World Cup scores

Sunday

Group A

Granada, Spain

Serbia 73, France 74

• Brazil 79, Iran 50

• Spain 91, Egypt 54

Group B

• Seville, Spain

• Argentina 85, Croatia 90

• Senegal 82, Puerto Rico 75

• Greece 82, Philippines 70

Group C

Bilbao, Spain

• Dominican Republic 76, New Zealand 63

• Finland 81, Ukraine 76

• United States 98, Turkey 77

Group D

Gran Canaria, Spain

• South Korea 55, Australia 89

• Slovenia 89, Mexico 68

• Lithuania 75, Angola 62

Down at half, US beats Turkey in basketball worlds