USA U16 Women blast Argentina, 98-28

CANCUN, Mexico – The beat goes on for the USA Women’s U16 National Team.

With a comfortable 23-point lead at halftime, the Americans outscored Argentina 38-6 in the third quarter to blow the game wide open on its way to a 98-28 rout at the 2013 FIBA Americas U16 Championship on Thursday.

Asia Durr of St. Pius X Catholic (Atlanta) led the USA with 23 points and six rebounds, and she made 7-of-10 from the free throw line to set a USA U16 record for free throws attempted. Additionally, the USA’s 30 3-point attempts established a USA U16 single-game team high.

Crystal Dangerfield of Blackman (Murfreesboro, Tenn.), who shot 7-of-9 from the field added 16 points; Arike Ogunbowale of Divine Savior Holy Angels (Milwaukee) contributed 15 points; DeJanae Boykin of C.H. Flowers (Springdale, Md.) finished with a double-double of 12 points and 12 rebounds to go with a team-high four assists out of the front court; and Katie Lou Samuelson of Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) added 11 points, eight rebounds.

Once again using various trapping and pressure defenses, the USA overwhelmed its opponent, forcing Argentina into 24 turnovers.

“I thought we handled our offensive transition much better tonight,” said Sue Phillips , USA head coach and head mentor at Archbishop Mitty High in San Jose, Calif., and for the San Jose Cagers AAU. “I thought we had a balanced attack. We scored in a variety of ways. We scored with defense creating offense, we scored from beyond the arc, we scored inside, we scored from offensive boards, we scored from the free throw line, and that’s what we were looking for offensively, was just a better, well-rounded game.

“Argentina is a much better team than the score indicated. We shot the ball well. With that being said, we started zero-zero. I think our pressure and our depth eventually started to wear them down a bit,” she added.