got a little bit three happy there; we were up 10 or 12 points, and I thought we took some quick, ill-advised threes,” stated Donovan. “I thought in the second half we really played well. We got the ball inside, I think our first five or six possession we scored on, and we got stops and the lead went from 15 to 20 pretty quickly, then we extended it to 30. “Our defense was a lot better in the
second half, and we shared the ball. I thought in the second half we did a really good job of establishing our post people, getting the ball inside and we physically were able to wear them down.”
USA 81, Brazil 56 Leading by just six at halftime of the
gold medal game, the USA stepped up its defense in the second half to break open its game with Brazil and record an 81-56 victory and the 2012 FIBA Americas U18 Championship. USA 6’8” forward Randle, who had
USA 81, Brazil 56 June 20, 2012
USA
Randle Stokes Britt
Smart Grant
MIN FG FT R A PF PTS 23 5-11 8-12 12 12 18 22 5- 9 1- 1 4 01 11 22 1- 7 1- 2 0 23 3 24 4- 8 1- 2 3 43 10 21 2- 4 2- 2 7 00 7
Layman 5 0- 2 0- 0 0 02 0 Dekker 14 3- 8 0- 0 2 00 7 Harrell
8 1- 2 1- 1 1 01 3
Goodwin 15 1- 3 2- 4 5 00 4 Sulaimon 17 3- 5 1- 2 2 04 8 Purvis
14 2- 6 0- 1 0 23 4
Robinson 15 3- 4 0- 0 3 01 6 Totals 200 30-69 17-27 44 9 20 81
BRA Pereira Siqueira Junior
MIN FG FT R A PF PTS 15 2- 5 1- 2 4 05 5
Demetrio 20 3- 9 4- 8 5 05 11 Faria
19 2- 6 1- 2 4 13 6 6 0- 0 1- 1 0 01 1
Ramos 34 1- 8 0- 0 6 21 2 Leite
2 0- 1 0- 0 0 11 0 17 1- 2 0- 2 4 12 2
Dias Silva 32 3- 4 2- 4 6 02 11 Sommer 18 1- 2 0- 4 2 04 2 Da Silva 24 4-11 3- 4 1 22 11 Verardo
8 1- 1 0- 0 0 10 2
De Lima 5 1- 2 0- 0 1 11 3 Totals 200 19-51 12-27 38 9 27 56
USA Brazil
24 13 19 25 -- 81 16 15 9 16 -- 56
3-PT FGs-USA (4-12): Dekker 1-3, Smart 1-2, Sulaimon 1-2, Grant 1-1, Layman 0-2, Randle 0-1, Stokes 0-1; Brazil (6-15): Dias Silva 3-3, Demetrio 1-2, Faria 1-2, De Lima 1-1, Ramos 0-3, Da Silva 0-3, Leite 0-1; TO-USA 18, Brazil 26; BLKS-USA 3, Brazil 7; STLS-USA 18, Brazil 4.
USA Basketball News
Top: Shaq Goodwin opened the FIBA Americas U18 Championship with 30 points, the third- highest scoring effort ever by a U.S. player. Above: Marcus Smart started all five games and recorded 7.4 points a game and USA bests of 4.0 assists and 3.6 steals a game.
just completed his junior high school season, helped pave the way to the win posting a double-double of 18 points and 12 rebounds. Stokes contributed 11 points, and Marcus Smart was credited with 10 points, three rebounds, four assists and a game high six steals. The USA, which averaged 97.2
points a game during the championship while winning its five contests by an average of 38.6 points a game, received scoring from 11 of its 12 players.
“I thought in the first half they went
zone and we got a little stagnant, and we turned the ball over way too much. We had some opportunities on some fast breaks that we got nothing out of. The one thing we were fortunate in the first half was they were 9-for-19 from the foul line.,” stated Donovan. “I thought in the second half we got
up and down the floor, we were pushing it more; more up tempo, we attacked the basket; we attacked the paint; and I thought our defense was really, really good in the second half. We took away 3-pointers and easy baskets, and that enabled us to get out on the fast break.” Having put an 83-64 whipping on
Brazil just two days early during the two teams’ final preliminary round game, Brazil, behind another near capacity crowd, refused to let the USA pull away in the first half. Tied 7-7 with 6:02 to play in the
first quarter, five different U.S. players contributed points in a 11-2 run that saw the USA lead increase to 18-9 with 2:41 left in the opening period. Brazil pulled to within five, 18-13,
but Robinson drove down the middle twice for layups, and Sulaimon convert- ed a steal into a layup in the quarter’s final seconds to push the U.S. advantage to 24-16 after one quarter of action. The USA pushed its lead to 12
points, 31-19, following a Smart 3-point- er. But Brazil, playing to its vocal crowd, regrouped and reeled off seven straight points to cut the deficit to 31-26. Brazil continued to close in and with
36 seconds remaining before halftime, the South Americans had whittled the gap to 35-31 after Lucas Rosa Faria connected on a 3-pointer. The U.S. retired to the locker room at halftime leading 37-31 after Goodwin netted two off an offensive rebound with 12 seconds remaining before halftime. The score could have been very
different if the host country hadn’t shot itself in the foot by sinking just 9-of-19 free throws. Brazil also worked to a 22-13 advantage on the glass. With the gold medal still in limbo,
the Americans opened the third quarter with inspired defense, while kicking its offense up a notch or two.
Continued on page 93 91
Craig Miller/USA Basketball
Craig Miller/USA Basketball
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