MarJon Beauchamp's 24 points lead US to a dominant 102-67 win over Nicaragua

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MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — MarJon Beauchamp scored 24 points, Brandon Knight scored 14 and the United States easily defeated Nicaragua 102-67 on Friday night in the opening game of qualifying for the 2027 Basketball World Cup for both teams.

Kyle Guy added 11 for the Americans, who never trailed and closed the first half on a 20-7 run to take full control.

It was the first of 12 qualifying games for the Americans between now and March 2027. They’ll face Nicaragua again on Monday in College Park, Georgia.

Norchad Omier had 26 points and 13 rebounds for Nicaragua, which got 15 points from Jared Ruiz.

The U.S. is in Group A of the Americas Region for the opening stage of qualifying, along with Mexico and the Dominican Republic. The Americans will play each of those teams twice in the coming months. There are four groups of four teams for the opening round of Americas qualifying, and that collection of 16 teams will get pared down to 12 for the second round.

From there, seven teams from the Americas Region will qualify for the World Cup that will be played in Doha, Qatar from Aug. 27 through Sept. 12, 2027. Qatar automatically qualifies as the host nation; the other 31 spots will be decided in qualifying.

Of those spots, 12 will go to teams from Europe, seven from the FIBA Asia-Oceania region, seven from the Americas and five from Africa.