XAPALA, Mexico — The scoring machine, known as the USA Basketball Men’s U16 National Team, racked up another lopsided win and secured a tournament record for points scored on Tuesday.
Utilizing its superior depth and a balanced scoring attack with nine players scoring more than seven pints, the Americans walloped Dominican Republic, 133-74, in FIBA Americas U16 Championship action.
The USA’s 133 points broke the previous USA men’s U16 single-game scoring record of 130 points that was set in 2013 against Mexico. The Red, White and Blue improved to 2-0 with one pool game left.
The win, which kept the USA’s all-time record in FIBA Americas U16 play a perfect 33-0, assures the USA of the Group B No. 1 seed for Friday’s quarterfinals matchup against the No. 4 seed from Group A.
Ronald Holland (Duncanville, Texas), who played 14:55 before being disqualified for two technical fouls, and Bryson Tucker (Mount St. Joseph, Baltimore), paced the USA’s high-octane offense with 22 points each. Robert Dillingham (Combine Academy, Hickory, N.C.) added 19 points and six assists, Justin McBride (Oak Hill Academy, Mouth of Wilson, Va.) recorded 14 points and 10 rebounds, Ian Jackson (Cardinal Hayes, Bronx, N.Y.) added 13 points and Kylan Boswell (Arizona Compass Prep, Chandler, Ariz.) rounded out the USA’s double-figure scorers with 10 points.
“As a team, I feel like we moved the ball really well, and I feel like in the second half that was when our defense really increased,” Tucker said.
“Our depth as a team impacts the game a lot, because I feel like other countries don’t have as good of a five off the bench that’s coming in with our five. So, our bench is usually outscoring their bench,” added Tucker on the USA bench outscoring the Dominican Republic’s bench by 41 points, 71-30.
“I thought we were really erratic defensively in the first half. Once we settled down and we started playing better half-court defense and stopped giving up so many layups and stopped making so many cheap fouls, I think it was a turn to the way we want to play from here on out. Just being really solid defensively, communicating, rotating, and just doing our responsibilities,” said head coach Sharman White (Pace Academy, Atlanta).
In a choppy, foul-heavy first half that saw 24 fouls whistled and the two teams shoot a combined 26 free throws, the Americans slipped out to an early 16-10 lead, only to see the Dominicans rally back to even the score 21-all with 1:14 remaining in the first quarter.
Getting points from four different players, Dillingham drained a 3-pointer from just inside half court at the buzzer to push the U.S. lead to 32-22 after one quarter.
“We got off to a slow start and with all the fouls called early, for us to be able to push ahead and put them in a situation where they had to respond to a run was very key for us,” White said. “That was one of our objectives going into the game, put them into a situation where they had to be able to catch up to us, or match our intensity, or match our ability to score the basketball.”
Outscoring Dominican Republic 37-22 in the second quarter, the USA blew the game wide-open and headed to the locker room at halftime leading 69-44.
The USA opened the second half in full stride and outscored Dominican Republic 29-18 to take a 98-62 lead into the final period.
Dillingham’s reverse layup with 1:19 left in the game made the score 131-74 and broke the USA’s previous single-game scoring record.
The Americans recorded 34 assists, one shy of equaling the U.S. single-game mark, with Jaylen Curry (Vance, Charlotte, N.C.) recording a game-high nine.
The USA will conclude preliminary play against Chile (0-2) on Wednesday (12:30 p.m. EDT). All games are being streamed live on the FIBA YouTube channel.
After finishing preliminary round games, all eight teams advance to the quarterfinals on Aug. 27. The quarterfinal winners play in the semifinals on Aug. 28. On Aug. 29, the semifinal winners meet in the gold medal game, while the semifinal losers play in the bronze medal game.
The top four finishing teams at the 2021 FIBA Americas U16 Championship will qualify for the 2022 FIBA Men’s U17 World Cup.
— From USA Basketball Communications
