BÉLEM, Brazil – For the fourth straight game, the the USA Men’s U16 National Team cruisers to victory, this time unleashing a balanced attack on Friday.
All 12 team members scored and the Americans trounced Puerto Rico, 102-51, advancing to the medal semifinals of the FIBA Americas U16 Championship at the Guilherme Paraense Arena.
The win also secured a berth for the United States into the 2020 FIBA U17 World Cup as all four semifinalists qualified for next year’s U17s.
The USA will face Argentina (2-2) in semifinals on Saturday night.
Argentina advanced after getting past Uruguay (1-3) 62-53. Also earning a semifinal berth was Canada (4-0), which defeated Mexico (0-4) 95-78 in today’s early game, and the winner of the Dominican Republic (2-1) or Brazil (1-2). The bronze and gold medal games are Sunday.
Paced by 15 points from Jabari Smith Jr. (Sandy Creek H.S./Tyrone, Ga.), five players scored in double digits for the young Americans. AJ Griffin (Archbishop Stepinac H.S./Ossining, N.Y.) scored 14 points and had four of the USA’s 14 steals, Chris Livingston (Buchtel H.S./Akron, Ohio) notched 13 points and seven boards, Richard Isaacs Jr. (Coronado H.S./Las Vegas, Nev.) tallied 12 points and eight caroms and Max Christie (Rolling Meadows H.S./Arlington Heights, Ill.) chipped in 11 points.
Kijani Wright (Windward H.S./Los Angeles, Calif.) grabbed a game-best 10 rebounds to help the U.S. out-rebound Puerto Rico, 63-48.
“This team’s improvement is clear over the four games that we have played,” said USA U16 head coach Mike Jones of DeMatha Catholic H.S. in Hyattsville, Md., who is now 29-2 overall and 6-1 as a head coach with USA Basketball against international teams. “Defensively, we’ve gotten better. The first quarter hasn’t been our best quarter, but our second, third and fourth quarters have been really good. Today we scored 60 points in the second half, and we didn’t press at all in the second half. There are just a lot of really good things. We just have to keep playing hard, keep sharing the ball and keep focusing on defense and we can be pretty good.”
“It’s good all around,” Smith said of his team’s balanced play. “That means we’re sharing the ball and everybody’s playing the right brand of basketball, which is going to help us win a gold medal.”
After a slow start that left the USA trailing by a point, 14-13, at the end of the first quarter, the U.S. took off in the second quarter.
Outscoring Puerto Rico 9-0 out of the quarter break, USA strung together a 16-2 run that spanned the first five minutes of the period and opened the game 29-16. Puerto Rico managed a 6-3 spurt to close the gap to 10 points, 32-22, but that was as close as the game would get for the remainder of the contest. Receiving points from three different athletes, the USA closed the half with a 10-0 run and owned a 42-22 lead heading into the midway break.
“Being aggressive, that’s what gets our points, trying to get into the lane and kick-out 3s,” Griffin said. “That’s why we drive, just to kick it out to our shooters like Max (Christie) and all the other shooters on our team.”
USA never let up in the second half, outscoring Puerto Rico 32-13 in the third quarter and 28-16 in the final stanza.
The USA scored 28 points on Puerto Rico’s 20 turnoverss and allowed just five points on its eight turnovers.
