16, the U.S. took out Thailand 21-14 to earn a spot in the quarterfinals. “It was definitely better and we’re
getting back to how we played in D.C. (at the FIBA Americas Championship),” added Samuelson. “We have to come out from the very beginning really hard and we need to rebound better and play better defense.” “I love 3x3,” Samuelson added. “It’s
awesome and it’s really fun to play. It’s really fun to be playing outside, there’s music playing, it’s a lot more fun (setting) to me than five-on-five.” The U.S. men, who entered day
three with a perfect 5-0 record, continued on their roll and routed Taiwan 21-7, then earned a solid 21-14 victory over
seven prelim contests, the U.S. had limited its pre- liminary round opponents to just 7.0 points game.
From the start of the
Lithuania game, the American men struggled to find their offensive rhythm. Back-to-back two-point plays by Lithuania earned it a 12-7 lead midway through the game. The U.S. worked to regain the momentum and managed to close the gap to 13-10, but their inability to hit shots from the field or from the foul line doomed the team to the 15-12 loss. “Lithuania
Sharpshooter Katie Lou Samuelson helped the USA squad to an 8-1 record and the 3x3 U18 world crown.
played a lot more physical than how other teams played us; they also played harder than we did and we also didn’t knock down our shots,” said
Austin. “They got the loose balls and outrebounded us a lot, so it real- ly came down to them being physi- cal, being a tougher team. “We missed five straight free
throws as a team and those would have helped us a lot,” added Austin. “In the first five games our team
was really rolling, everything was on point – our passes, we were doing everything the right way, we were playing hard no matter who we played against,” said Flannigan. “Then we made a few mistakes and it cost us. One of the big things was we dunked a lot. The new rule is that a dunk is worth two points so in that last game they were really physical, fouling us a lot and we couldn’t dunk and that was our game most of the time.”
Day Four - September 29 After earning hard-fought wins
The USA’s 6’8” Cliff Alexander provided the U.S. 3x3 team with a dominating inside presence.
Philippines to finish Group B preliminary play with a 7-0 record.
The USA men were the only nation in the 32-team championship to finish
the preliminary round having scored 21 or more points in all seven of its prelimi- nary round games. Averaging a tourna- ment best 21.1 points a game in its first
USA Basketball News
in the quarterfinals and semifinals, the USA women handled Estonia 21-12 to claim the 3x3 U18 gold medal. “I feel like if we wouldn’t have won
the gold we would have been really dis- appointed that we spent all this time and wasted everybody’s time basically, but I’m really happy that we won and our time wasn’t put to waste,” said Green. “It feels great, it’s really cool. It
took a lot of work,” added Ogunbowale. When asked about the characteristics
of this gold medal team, Ogunbowale responded, “Probably just the drive, motivation, determination, all those three. We wanted to win; we didn’t want anything less than a gold medal.” Carrying a 6-1 record into final
day’s medal round quarterfinals, the USA women nipped undefeated France 17-15 in a tight contest. “We knew we had to come out hard
and if we played the way we did against Spain the day before we knew we could win it,” said Samuelson. A rematch with 2012 FIBA 3x3 U18
silver medalist Spain was next for the USA, and again the U.S. came out on top earning a 15-10 win. “It was of course a harder game
because we had already beat them so they were coming out for revenge and to get to the gold medal game too. But once again we just really stuck to our game plan and we were able to pull out the win,” said Turner, a gold medalist with the 2012 USA 3x3 U18 World Championship Team. Facing 7-1 Estonia in the gold medal
game, the USA powered its way to a decisive 21-12 win. “We started off really well. Estonia
played hard but we really kept it a fast paced game and I think we tired them out and we kept going with our intensity and it really helped,” said Samuelson. In the men’s medal finals, Argentina
defeated France 13-7 to take the men's gold, and Russia upended Lithuania 19-16 to capture the bronze medal.
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