Games like Friday’s romp over Costa Rica over very little from a coaching perspective beyond the opportunity to worry about making it to the final buzzer without any injuries. With a final margin of 87 points it’s hard to imagine that an intersquad scrimmage might not have been way more constructive to prep the US team for the games out of pool play. None the less, we take a look at the final box from the Costa Rica massacre and break down the numbers just as we have for the cakewalks over Brazil and Argentina. I mentioned after the Brazil game that such numbers needed to be taken with a grain of salt, for this one you may need a whole shaker! Here’s a link to the final box and another spotlight on the stats.
http://www.usabasketball.com/womens/u16/13_wu16_game_03_box.html
USA 106 COSTA RICA 19
USA DOMINATED THE REBOUNDING PULLING DOWN 44 MORE THAN COSTA RICA
LED THE TURNOVER BATTLE BY 19 AIDED BY JUST 5 TURNOVERS THEMSELVES ACROSS THE COURSE OF THE ENTIRE GAME
JUST 4 PLAYERS COMMITTED TURNOVERS FOR THE USA
THE USA ATTEMPTED 36 MORE FIELD GOALS THAN COAST RICA
EIGHT PLAYERS SHOT OVER 50% FROM THE FLOOR INDIVIDUALLY IN THE WIN
WENT TO THE LINE FOR 15 MORE ATTEMPTS THAN THEIR OPPONENTS
ONE AREA OF CONCERN WOULD BE THE DISAPPOINTING 47% CLIP FROM THE FREE THROW STRIPE
23% OF ALL US SHOTS WERE THREE POINTERS GOING 9 OF 20 AFTER PUTTING UP A RECORD OF 30 ATTEMPTS IN GAME TWO
THE USA SCORED 25 OR MORE POINTS IN 3 OUT OF 4 QUARTERS
THREE PLAYERS HAD 5 OR MORE ASSISTS IN THE WIN
ON THE DEFENSIVE END OF THE FLOOR
HELD COSTA RICA TO JUST 16% SHOOTING FROM THE FLOOR – THREE GAMES IN A ROW BELOW 20% FOR THE OPPOSITION
LIMITED THEIR SCORING TO SINGLE DIGITS IN 3 OF 4 PERIODS
ALLOWED JUST 8 FIELD GOALS OF WHICH 2 WERE FROM BEHIND THE ARCH
WHILE AN OPPOSING PLAYER DID REACH DOUBLE FIGURES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THE EVENT, JUST 3 FROM COSTA RICA WERE ABLE TO SCORE AGAINST THE US DEFENSE
THE USA FORCED 24 TURNOVERS, RACKED UP 15 STEALS AND POSTED 8 BLOCKS
ALLOWED JUST 4 OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS ON 42 MISSED COSTA RICAN FIELD GOAL ATTEMPTS
LEADERS
KATIE LOU SAMUELSON 20 POINTS – WITH SIX OTHER PLAYERS POSTING DOUBLE FIGURE SCORING AS WELL
SAMUELSON SHOT 8 OF 12 FROM THE FLOOR INCLUDING 4 FOR 6 FROM THREE POINT RANGE.
SAMUELSON AND SABRINA IONESCU LED THE WAY ON THE GLASS WITH 8 REBOUNDS APIECE
THE US HAD 27 ASSISTS WITH THREE PLAYERS (DANGERFIELD, IONESCU, CARTER) EACH HAVING 5
WORTH MENTIONING AGAIN WAS THE USA TOTAL OF JUST 5 TURNOVERS
FORWARD LAUREN COX RETURNED FOR 18 MINUTES AFTER MISSING THE PREVIOUS GAME DUE TO ILLNESS
TAYLOR MURRAY HAS HAD HER MINUTES LIMITED IN THE LAST TWO GAMES WITH A SHOULDER SPRAIN
