USA Women’s Basketball u17 Bronze Medal 2016 FIBA World Championships

ZARAGOZA, Spain – The panic is over, the patient will survive, the USA team won a medal, albeit it begin Bronze when the USA Basketball Women’s u17 team beat a tough China team 65-60 at the 2016 FIBA u17 World Championships.

After yesterday’s first-time loss to Australia (which won the gold medal over Italy 62-38) by 13-points it was painfully obvious that this talented team just needed more time and more games under their belt to adjust to the level of intensity of continuous play and movement that is the hallmark of FIBA-level youth competition.  The USA was able to readjust and rebound to start faster, spread the floor better and hit some shots, especially those by 5-9 shooter Taylor Mikesell (Massillon, OH) who’s three’s in the last quarter sealed the victory.

All 12 of the roster played in the first half with nine scoring points. Little used Taylor Mikesell (Massillon, OH) was the leader with 6 points and Olivia Nelson-Ododa had 6 rebounds at half. The USA outrebounded a strong China lineup built around 6-7 Xu Han who was held to just 4 points and 5 rebounds. The Chinese came back in the 3rd quarter and cut a USA 14-point lead down to three to start the fourth period behind Han’s 12 points and then to two on a layup by Yang Li  for 50-48 with 5:31remaining and a USA timeout.

Everyone in the USA got very nervous at this point, worrying if this was going to be a Medal or Meltdown Moment before Mikesell calmly nailed a big a three from the wing corner with 4:41 left for 53-48. This propelled the USA into motion with Maya Dodson (12 points, 7 rebounds) collected Mikesell’s next shot miss for a three-point play, then a Mikesell assist to Olivia Nelson-Ododa (10 rebounds, 9 points) for 58-50 lead. Mikesell’s next three with :50 left moved the USA to a 63-50 and sealed the victory. Mikesell played 43 minutes for the entire tournament, 19:47 in this game, to finish 11th in minutes played on the team but maybe the biggest.

GOLD GAME:  Australia jumped out fast on the Italians, 11-2 at the start but Italy rallied to cut it to 14-9 by the end of the first quarter. Italy closed the game to two 16-18 early in the second but couldn’t capture the lead. Australia got productive play from two of the three effective players against the USA, post Ezi Magbegor ( 5 points, 4 rebounds ) and point guard sub Monique Conti (11 points) plus 10 points from Aussie captain Jasmine Simmons to outscore Italy 22-2 for a 31-16 halftime lead. The game was never in doubt after this as Australia won the game 62-38 and proved to be the best team at the 2016 FIBA World Championships going 7-0.

5th PLACE: Czech came back from a 5-point third quarter deficit and held off host Spain in the final period with key shots to take 5th place 63-51.  The Czech, which was the Euro u16 champions last year, performed at an up and down pace allowing teams to either blow them out or push them into close games. They lost to finalist Italy by 2 in pool play and then to the USA by nine – all in Pool C before getting crushed by the other finalist Australia by 30 points to end up in the 5-6 game. It took a 21-4 fourth quarter surge to win the game. Host Spain finished 6th with a team that usually is in the medal bracket round but the ’16 edition is considered a down cycle.

7th PLACE:  The FIBA Americas champion Canada team was hoping for a better finish but dropped a heartbreaking 58-50 game to the finalist Italy in the quarterfinals and then had to battle back to face France (which lost to the USA by 11 and Czech by 7) in the 7-8 game. Canada lost their first 5-8 consolation bracket game in the final minutes after holding and giving up leads by three to host Spain. The 7th place contest was almost the same as Canada this time held the lead through the second half to beat and very tough France team 58-53.

TAKEAWAY:  The USA team finished 3rd for Bronze at FIBA Americas behind Canada and Brazil and ahead of Mexico. The USA finished 3rd at the Worlds with Canada getting 7th, Brazil 13th, Mexico 14th. Other teams: Czech 5th, Spain 6th, Canada 7th, France 8th, Japan 9th, Latvia 10th, Mali 11th, Portugal 12th, South Korea 15th.  Not a bad finish after looking at the results from a FIBA Americas viewpoint for the USA. Tack on the win over Italy and their 25-point loss to Australia in the finals. It looks like Pool C as the Ciller pool.

USA COACHES: There were over 45 US college coaches here in Zaragoza, Spain and many of the head coaches watching this FIBA World Championships with the sole purpose of recruiting not only the USA team members but also the players from the other teams.  The USA lost to Australia had many a coach not happy and questioning everything from player effort, fundamentals, coaching, level of competition in America, the selection process, training, difference between USA players and the other teams here.  For some it was their first time, for others, they’ve seen this before. The biggest item was that the USA needs to get better otherwise we won’t win and coaches will recruit outside the USA.

ALL-STAR TEAM:  Sara Madera, Italy; Xu Han, China; Monique Conti, Australia; Jasmine Simmons, Autrralia; MVP Ezi Magbegor, Australia.