INDIANAPOLIS (Indiana), Sept 7: The United States managed to soothe its bruised basketball ego a little bit Friday, downing Puerto Rico 84-74 in a classification game at the 2002 World Basketball Championships.

The US entered the game reeling after suffering a pair of surprise losses to Argentina and Yugoslavia, which dropped the Americans into the classification pool for fifth to eighth spot in the final rankings.

The losses ended a streak of 58 consecutive victories for the US when they have used NBA players in international competition, dating back to 1992.

But the Americans ended their two-game losing streak with some conviction, taking a 50-36 half-time lead after trailing 25-19 after one quarter.

That lead was cut to 67-57 after three quarters, but the Americans had enough left to hold off the Puerto Ricans in the fourth quarter to improve their overall tournament record to 6-2.

The US play for fifth place against Spain while Puerto Rico will face Brazil for seventh place.

Spain put on an impressive offensive display to defeat Brazil 105-89, to set up the clash with the US.

Juan Carlos Navarro had 22 points for Spain, while Pau Gasol added 21 to help Spain win their sixth game.

Rogerio Klafke scored 19 points to lead Brazil, while Alex Garcia added 17 points.

Brazil were without two of their top three scorers, Marcelo Machado and Vanderlei Mazzuchini, who both didn’t play due to injury.

Turkey, making their first appearance at a world championships, downed China 94-86 and will play Russia for ninth place.

Mehmet Okur had 24 points and eight rebounds to lead Turkey, while Hedo Turkoglu added 21 points and nine assists.

Yao Ming led China once again with 26 points and 14 rebounds in one of his best performances of the tournament.

Hu Weidong had 20 points, including six 3-pointers. Menke Bateer added 17 points. China meet Angola for 11th place.

Russia, trying to make up for a disappointing tournament, downed Angola 77-66 after out-rebounding the Africans 45-22 and out-scoring them 19-5 at the free-throw line.

The failure to reach the top three breaks a sequence of 10 consecutive medal performances for Russia and the former Soviet Union at the world championships.

Nikita Morgunov and Vassili Karassev both had 12 points to lead the Russians, while Rouslan Avleev added 11.

Angelo Victoriano had 14 points for Angola, while guard Carlos Almeida added 12.—Reuters