Completed Event: Men's Basketball at Utah on February 24, 2026 , Win , 75, to, 59
Final
Men's Basketball
75
Utah
59
Iowa State University Athletics
Brackins Key in USA Victory Over Serbia
07.07.2009 | Men's Basketball
BELGRADE, Serbia- The USA contingent scored a big win this afternoon at the World University Games and Iowa State's Craig Brackins helped the cause. Brackins scored seven points and grabbed four rebounds in a 68-66 win over Serbia in front of a wild, pro-Serb crowd. The win, which avenged an earlier 98-82 U.S. loss to the Serbs in exhibition play, improves the USA record to 4-0 and sets up a matchup vs. Bulgaria on Thursday at 1 p.m.
“It was a really good win for us,” Brackins said. “We learned a lot from this game and we knew it was going to be tough game going in. All 12 players contributed to the win.”
The game went down to the wire, as the Serbian team had a couple of chances to win or tie in the closing seconds. The win was important for the U.S. team's confidence, which is growing by the day despite the small amount of time they have had to play together.
“It came down to them (Serbia) taking the last shot,” Brackins said. “We had two offensive rebounds after a free-throw, but we missed both shots. We made one free-throw to go up by two with five seconds left and they had a shot at the buzzer that rimmed out.”
The two teams could very well meet again in the finals on July 11. For now, Brackins is just having fun enjoying a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“It is been great because we are all fans of each other after watching each other play on TV during the year,” Brackins said. “Once we leave here, we all have something that we can talk about forever. We know it is going to be tough to win it all. The environment here is great. The arena here holds 22,000 and there were probably 17,000 at the game today. It has been a fun time so far.”
World University Games Update- Iowa State
Lucca Staiger
Lucca Staiger had nine points on three 3-pointers in Germany's 81-69 win over Romania today. Germany will play Israel on Thursday (July 9) at 5:30 a.m. CST. Staiger is averaging 16.3 points through four games. The Germans are 2-2 in the tournament
Germany (2-2)
Latvia 80, Germany 76 - Staiger 22 points
Germany 86, South Africa 42 ? Staiger 13 points
Lithuania 76, Germany 75 ? Staiger 21 points
Germany 81, Romania 69 ? Staiger 9 points
Craig Brackins
Craig Brackins had seven points and four rebounds in a close 68-66 win over Serbia today. The win avenged an earlier 98-82 loss to Serbia in exhibition play before the tournament started. Brackins is averaging 8.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 19.7 minutes per game. The USA team, now 4-0 in the tournament, will face Bulgaria on Thursday (July 9) at 1 p.m. CST.
USA (4-0)
USA 87, Finland 40 ? Brackins 12 points, 9 rebounds
USA 113, Korea 76 ? Brackins 9 points, 6 rebounds
USA 108, Greece 77 ? Brackins 7 points, 7 rebounds
USA 68, Serbia 66 ? Brackins 7 points, 4 rebounds
Players Mentioned
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