MALDONADO, Uruguay — Malik Newman is in a zone.
Newman of Callaway (Jackson, Miss.) poured in 26 points as the USA Basketball Men’s U16 National Team (3-0) outpaced Bahamas, 121-52, Thursday at the FIBA Americas U16 Championships.
Newman, who notched his 26 points in just 20 minutes of action, hit a stellar 11-of-13 from the field and also picked off four steals.
“Malik is the best pure scorer in our class,” teammate Daniel Giddens said. “I think being here on the USA (team) really solidified that. Malik can really score at will and that’s what he did. He played his game.”
With the win, the U.S. not only clinched the top seed out of Group A for the June 14 medal semifinals, it also earned a berth to the 2014 FIBA U17 World Championship as all four medal semifinalists advance to next summer’s U17 Worlds.
Next up for the USA U16 squad is the No. 2 seed out of Group B, the victor of the game between Chile (1-1) and Puerto Rico (1-1). Canada (2-0), which faces host Uruguay (0-2) in tonight’s final game, already advanced as Group B’s No. 1 seed. Argentina (2-1) advanced to the semifinals from Group A after defeating Mexico (1-2) 81-51. The USA will play its semifinal at 7 p.m. (6 p.m. EDT) on Friday, and the finals will be played on Saturday.
All games are being streamed live online at FIBAAmericas.com.
All 11 healthy members of the team scored, including a total of six in double digits as Jayson Tatum of Chaminade (St. Louis) put up 17 points to go with three assists and four steals; Giddens of Wheeler (Marietta, Ga.) notched the game’s lone double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds; Diamond Stone of Dominican (Milwaukee) just missed out on a double-double as he scored 14 and grabbed nine caroms; V.J. King of St. Vincent-St. Mary (Akron, Ohio) produced 11 points, six rebounds and four assists; while Ivan Rabb of Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland, Calif.) contributed 10 points, seven rebounds and had a game-high six blocked shots.
“Bahamas came ready to play,” said USA Basketball U16 head coach Don Showalter of Iowa City (Iowa). “As it goes, our depth paid off over the course of the game. I give Bahamas a lot of credit. I thought they hung in there and really used their abilities to score. From that standpoint, they did a nice job.”
As has been the case in its previous two games, the USA struck first and never trailed.
Rabb got the U.S. off by putting back his own miss at 9:30 and by the 6:42 mark, the U.S. was up 13-4. Bahamas refused to back down and hit back-to-back buckets to closed to within five points, 13-8 at 6:08. However, that scoring spurt was short-lived. The USA went off on a 10-2 scoring run to surge ahead by double digits, 23-10, with 1:09 remaining in the period. Twelve seconds later Bahamas got a put-back for the quarter’s final points to end the first with the U.S. up 23-12. Using their athleticism to try and combat the height disadvantage, Bahamas forced the red, white and blue into seven turnovers in the first 10 minutes of action.
“We came out flat,” said Seventh Woods of Hammond School (Columbia, S.C.), who scored six points, dished out a game-high seven assists, grabbed two blocks and had three steals. “But, all we needed was to pick up our intensity and play smart and aggressive like coach always says. We turned it up in the second.”
