BELÉM, Brazil  – Make it six straight for the USA U16 Men’s National Team at the FIBA Americas Championships.

Using a balanced scoring effort that saw six players in double digits, the USA  earned a sixth-straight gold medal crushing Canada, 94-71, in the final Sunday at the Guilherme Paraense Arena.

“It’s an incredible feeling to have watched a group of young men grow and to just be a part of the process with them,” said Mike Jones of DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Md., who is now 31-2 overall and 8-1 as a head coach with USA Basketball against international teams. “I could not be more proud of them. They performed, they defended, they scored, they shared, that was a very selfless game by all of our guys and that’s the reason why we won.”

Chris Livingston  (Buchtel H.S./Akron, Ohio), who led the USA with 23 points on 10-of-15 shooting from the floor was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament and was joined on the All-Star Five (all-tournament team) by teammate Jalen Duren (Roman Catholic H.S.,/Philadelphia), who scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Also named to the All-Star Five were Caleb Houston and Ryan Nembhard from Canada and Jean Montero from Dominican Republic.

“Chris’ motor and his energy and effort were contagious, and we saw that when we got to the tournament,” Jones said. “I don’t know who else you could have given that to just because of the way he played and how he affected everyone else’s energy. And then Jalen, obviously people can look at Jalen and say ‘hey, this kid is only 15 years old’ but for him, he’s grown a lot. His effort, his focus, his passion that he played with today, if he does that, he’s going to play this game for a long time. Those two guys definitely deserved to be on the all-tournament team.”

“It feels great,” said Livingston on his MVP award. “It’s really a tribute to the team because I couldn’t do it without the team. They were getting me open shots and things like that.”

“Chris came up big tonight,” Duren acknowledged. “Chris has played very well throughout the whole tournament and he deserved it.”

Also scoring in double digits for the USA were AJ Griffin  (Archbishop Stepinac H.S./Ossining, N.Y.), who accounted for 18 points, Jabari Smith Jr. (Sandy Creek H.S./Tyrone, Ga.) tossed in 14 points and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds, Amari Bailey (Sierra Canyon H.S./Chatsworth, Calif.) scored 12 points and Richard Isaacs Jr. (Coronado H.S./Las Vegas, Nev.) added 11 points.

” I could not be more proud of this team,” Jones said. “When we got together back on May 22, we all knew this was the purpose and this was the goal. Ugly, beautiful, whatever you want to call it, we got it done and again I could not be prouder of them.”

Leading 18-17, after the game’s opening 10 minutes, the USA created some breathing room after outscoring Canada 27-15 in the second quarter to grab a 45-32 lead at halftime.

The lead was extended to 72-57, after three quarters, and the USA sealed the game by outscoring Canada 22-20 in the fourth.

“They matched up pretty well with us in size, so you know we weren’t just going to get it done because of how big we were,” Livingston said. “We had to play great, we had to play hard, rebound and do it with each other.

“They pushed the ball in transition a lot,” he added. “They got a lot of their buckets that way and they were on the offensive boards really hard. But, we outlasted them during the course of the game.”

The win marked the third-straight gold medal victory over Canada in FIBA Americas U16 play. The USA earned its first three gold medals all against Argentina.

USA Basketball has claimed the gold medal in all six editions of the biennial event, which was first held in 2009, and has compiled a 31-0 slate during that time.

Dominican Republic (4-2) earned the bronze medal, its first-ever medal of at his event, with a 80-77 win over Argentina.

Brazil finished in fifth place after downing Puerto Rico, 78-61, and Mexico earned its first win of the tournament to place seventh with a 74-68 victory over Uruguay.