“I thought it (the USA’s focus and
intensity) was really good,” said Donovan. “This was a game where our guys came out and really from start to finish played really, really good basket- ball and I was proud of them tonight.
As has been the case in each of the
team’s seven previous wins, the American offensive effort was a team one. Smart officially was high scorer for the game with 18 points that came on 6- of-8 shooting, including 2-of-4 from 3- point. Joining him in double figures were Winslow, 15 points and nine rebounds; Gordon, 14 points, four rebounds, two assists, two blocked shots and two steals; Williams-Goss, 11 points and a game- best five assists; and Harrell 10 points on 5-of-7 shooting.
“These guys have bought into under-
standing that they’re all really good play- ers and there’s going to be a level of sac- rifice and unselfishness that’s going to have to go in and on any given night it could be anybody. Michael Frazier hasn’t particularly shot the ball well but you know the last two nights he’s made some 3-point shots that really helped our team. Oak (Jahlil Okafor) the other day against Canada was a force up front for us and made some incredible plays but today they double-teamed him. So it’s been different guys. I think we have to have an open mind offensively to take whatever the defense gives us and understand that on any given night it could be anyone scoring,” said Donovan.
Stokes scored five points to help
push the U.S. out to a strong start as the U.S. led 7-2. Lithuania made the first of the three 3-pointers it would score in the game to close the gap to 7-5, and the U.S., behind its havoc-wreaking press and five points from Winslow, ripped off 10-straight points in less than two min- utes to take charge 17-5.
Carrying a 25-16 lead into the sec-
ond quarter, the U.S. was up 31-22 when it finished off the second period with another impressive run, this time a 16-4 barrage that left the American squad in full control at halftime, 47-26. Frazier, who made 4-of-9 3-point shots versus Canada, continued to connect from beyond the 3-point arc and swished a pair during the run.
A 7-2 start to the third quarter built 44
“I feel very, very honored my coun-
try asked me to coach this team. I think USA Basketball could have picked a lot of coaches who would have done a wonderful job,” said Donovan who is 14-0 over the past two summers. “I thought the thing that changed our team was we had a great group coming back from last year (2012 USA U18 Championship Team) that had some experience, and I think the adding of Nigel (Williams-Goss), (Aaron) Gordon, (Jahlil) Okafor, Justise Winslow, those guys being a little bit younger so to speak, added a different element to our team. It was a special team and I just feel honored that I could be a part of it.”
Just as was the case when the two
Jarnell Stokes was the USA’s leading rebounder for a second consecutive summer, grabbing 6.2 boards a game and adding 7.2 points a game.
the U.S. advantage to 26 points, 54-26, and from there the U.S. ran away to a 72-44 lead after three quarters and to the eventual 100-60 victory.
The U.S. shot well, hitting on 59.5
percent of its shots, while sinking 6-of-12 from 3-point. Collecting a 42-26 rebounding advantage, the U.S. forced 19 turnovers and scored 24 points off those miscues. Lithuania shot just 36.2 percent for the game, and was only 3-of-18 from 3-point. “(Defending) the 3-point line was
critical. The reason that we’ve been able to make it to the gold medal game is that we’ve been able to hold teams down 3-point shooting wise up to this point in time,” said Donovan.
USA 82, Serbia 68 Thanks to a dominant second half,
the USA won the FIBA U19 World Championship for just the third time in the last eight U19 championships dating back to 1987. Behind 17 points from Harrell, the USA outscored Serbia 42-30 in the second half to break open a tight gold- medal affair and claim an 82-68 victory. Also aiding the U.S. gold medal
effort were Williams-Goss, who finished with 15 points and made 2-of-3 3-point attempts; Sulaimon made 2-of-6 3-point- ers and was credited with 12 points; Smart tallied 11 points and Payton finished with nine points and U.S. team- highs of six assists and five steals.
teams met in second round play on July 3 when the U.S. earned a hard- fought 71-62 win, this game too was a tight contest. Serbia led by as many as five points early, and the U.S. briefly enjoy an 18-point lead late in the game.
USA 100, Lithuania 60 July 6, 2013
USA
Harrell Stokes Payton
MIN FG FT R A PF PTS 18 5- 7 0- 0 2 13 10 14 3- 5 1- 1 5 01 7 19 1- 3 0- 0 2 20 2
Sulaimon 18 0- 3 0- 0 3 10 0 Smart
Winslow 23 7-12 1- 2 9 22 15 Gordon Tobey Okafor
18 6- 8 4- 4 3 21 18 15 7- 9 0- 0 4 24 14
8 3- 5 0- 0 6 02 6 14 3- 4 0- 0 2 21 6
Williams-Goss 23 5- 8 0- 0 1 52 11 Frazier
LTU
Robinson 12 1- 4 0- 0 1 23 2 Totals
Krestinin 13 1- 1 0- 0 1 01 2 Grigonis 21 3- 5 1- 1 4 11 7 Gustys
Gintvainis 21 0- 3 2- 2 2 32 2 Dimsa Staselis
15 4- 8 0- 0 2 04 8 22 3-11 1- 4 0 02 9
Jankaitis 13 2- 4 2- 6 3 00 6 Geben Tarolis
14 2- 2 3- 4 1 02 7 13 1- 2 0- 0 3 13 2
Tamulis 21 0- 7 0- 0 0 00 0 Raupys
Lekavicius 21 2- 5 0- 0 3 10 5 Totals
USA Lithuania
25 22 25 28 -- 100 16 10 18 16 -- 60
3PT FGs-USA (6-12): Frazier 3-4, Smart 2-4, Williams-Goss 1-3, Sulaimon 0-1; Lithuania (3-18): Dimsa 2-5, Lekavicius 1-2, Tamulis 0-5, Raupys 0-3, Grigonis 0-2, Gintvainis 0-1; TO-USA 16, Lithuania19; BLKS-USA 5, Lithuania 3; STLS- USA 10, Lithuania 5.
USA Basketball News
17 3- 5 3- 3 3 00 9 9 0- 5 3- 4 2 00 3 200 21-58 15-24 26 6 15 60
18 3- 6 0- 0 3 02 9 200 44-74 6- 7 42 19 21 100 MIN FG FT R A PF PTS
Craig Miller/USA Basketball
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