BANGKOK, Thailand – The USA Women’s U19 World Cup Team barely broke a sweat in preliminary round play. Now the heavy lifting begins.
All 12 team members scored on Tuesday, helping the Americans wallop Hungary, 95-50, to close preliminary round play at the FIBA U19 World Cup.
The U.S. will next play the No. 4 seeded team out of Group D in Wednesday’s round of 16 match-up (time TBD).
The game will be available live online at Facebook.com/USABasketball or YouTube.com/FIBA.
Rhyne Howard(Kentucky/Cleveland, Tenn.) scored a game-high 18 points on 4-of-7 shooting from 3 and 6-of-6 from the free throw line; Paige Bueckers (Hopkins H.S./St. Louis Park, Minn.) hit 5-of-7 from the field in scoring 13 points and dished out six of the team’s 20 assists; Francesca Belibi (Regis H.S./Centennial, Colo.) tallied 11 points and 13 rebounds; and Aliyah Boston(Worcester Academy, Mass./St. Thomas, U.S.V.I.) registered 10 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field. Additionally, Naz Hillmon-Baker (Michigan/Cleveland, Ohio) came within a point of a double-double after registering nine points and 10 caroms.
“I was really pleased with our effort today,” said Jeff Walz, USA U19 and University of Louisville head coach. “Offensively we were much better. We stopped dribbling the ball so much, which has been a problem for us all through training camp. We’ve got players who are the best on their high school teams, the best on their college teams and they have to dribble on those teams in order for something good to happen. That’s against what we’re trying to get them to do. We want fewer dribbles, more passing and find the open player early. In the first two games we did a very poor job of that. I thought today was much better, and you could see it on the offensive end.
“Rhyne and Paige have been very consistent with the way they’ve started games, and that’s encouraging,” he added. “What we’ve got to get them do now is to come out in the third quarter and be just as consistent, play like they have in the first half and assert themselves. But, I’m very pleased with the way those two have been playing.”
“I take pride in that, being a playmaker for my team,” said Bueckers, who is averaging 6.3 assists and just 1.7 turnovers per game through three games. “I always put others before myself and I don’t care about my individual scoring. I just want to do whatever it takes to help the team win. And if that’s getting everybody involved and making my teammates better, that’s what I’ll do.”
In the first quarter, the USA jumped ahead 5-0, but Hungary took the lead, 12-9 with 6:21 to play. Hailey Van Lith (Cashmere H.S./Wenatchee, Wash.) was fouled on a made drive to the basket with 6:21 to play and completed the and-one to tie the game 12-12. The USA reclaimed the lead after a jump shot by Queen Egbo (Baylor/Houston, Texas) at 5:21 to play to put the U.S. ahead 14-12.
The USA never again trailed.
