Brazil vs. Argentina: FIBA World Cup 2014 Round of 16 Score and Twitter Reaction

A close contest was expected between Brazil and Argentina in Sunday's single-elimination clash at the 2014 FIBA World Cup, and the score remained even through two quarters. However, a surging Brazil team ultimately shocked the Argentinians, dominating the second half to win by a score of 85-65.   

FIBA tweeted the game's end result:

Heading into the game, Argentina was ranked third in the world—just behind the United States and Spain—but the No. 10-ranked Brazilians displayed their size and earned the victory by remaining aggressive in the paint.

Early in the contest, the Argentinians were sticking to the outside more than expected. The team was settling for jumpers and three-pointers rather than challenging Brazil on the inside. For a moment, it looked as though the game plan would work, as Argentina's Pablo Prigioni was knocking down some serious buckets from behind the arc.

The first quarter ended with Argentina up 21-13, as Brazil couldn't seem to find any kind of consistency on the offensive end of the court. HoopsHype tweeted some unfavorable stats for the Brazilian team early in the game:

In the second quarter, the tables began to turn in Brazil's favor. The Argentinians continued to shoot from the perimeter, but with far less success than they had in the first. Meanwhile, Brazil became more aggressive on the inside, as Raulzinho Neto led the charge with a flurry of layups.

At the break, Argentina's lead dwindled to just three points.

Brazil was feeling it in the third quarter. With a great deal of confidence and momentum on its side, the team continued to attack both on the interior and from the outside, as Anderson Varejao dominated in the paint and Marquinhos Vieira began to heat up from three-point range.

With just 10 minutes remaining in the game, the Brazilians were suddenly up by eight, and the Argentinians found themselves on the brink of elimination. Eurohoops.net tweeted the game's current situation:

The situation remained the same throughout the fourth quarter. Brazil continued to attack on the inside, hitting high-percentage shots and increasing its lead. This forced Argentina into more wild attempts from the perimeter—most of which were missed.

By the end of the game, Argentina took a whopping 29 three-point attempts, connecting on 10 of them. Meanwhile, the team's inability to drive to the basket forced it to settle for far too many jumpers, resulting in hitting just 12-of-27 attempts from close range.

Both teams fought hard until the game's bitter end. Fran Fraschilla of ESPN.com tweeted his thoughts:

On the other hand, Brazil shot an impressive 53.3 percent on the day thanks to its presence on the interior. The team won the rebound battle in decisive fashion, pulling down 39 boards to Argentina's 26, and recorded 36 points in the paint—Argentina racked up just 18.

Neto was on fire on Sunday. He led the game with 21 points while hitting nine of his 10 shots. Varejao and Vieira were enormous presences on the inside. They combined for 21 points and 15 rebounds while coming up big on defense as well.

The San Antonio Spurs tweeted their own Tiago Splitter's final stats:

Splitter spoke about his team's mentality and how meaningful the contest was after the game, via Euroleague Basketball:

Argentina saw a nice performance come from guard Prigioni. He connected on three of his four three-point attempts and totaled a team-high 18 points while collecting four boards and three assists. HoopsHype tweeted what the result could mean for Argentina:

With the win, Brazil moves on to face Serbia in the quarterfinals. The Serbians dismantled Greece on Sunday, winning by a score of 90-72 due to the fantastic 21-point performance from Bogdan Bogdanovic.

Like Brazil, Serbia has some great size on the interior, but the team also has the shooting ability to remain efficient from the perimeter. There are plenty of similarities between these two teams, so expect to see some compelling basketball when they face off on Wednesday.

All statistics courtesy of FIBA.com.