USA U17 Women’s World Championship Team Opens Exhibition Play With 93-47 Drubbing of Canada

July 9, 2010 • Alagon, Spain

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The 2010 USA Women's U17 World Championship Team (1-0) put the first points on the board in its exhibition game against Canada (0-1) and never looked back. Racing to a 20-9 first quarter lead, the USA went on to secure a convincing 93-47 win over Canada on July 9 in Alagon, Spain.

"I felt like our first 30 minutes was very good, especially our defense," said Barbara Nelson, USA U17 and Wingate University head coach. "Canada I believe scored 50 points against us last year in the finals of the U16 qualifier, and they are a little stronger this year than they were last year. After the first three quarters, we had given up only 26 points, so I feel really, really positive about our defense. Then in the fourth quarter, the defense sort of fell apart, and that's something we will have to work on. Offensively, I thought we played really well as a team and shared the ball. We had a lot of different girls get shots, and I felt like we even missed a lot of easy shots, which is something we will also clean up."

Led by 17 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field by Kaleena Lewis (Mater Dei H.S./Anaheim, Calif), all 12 U.S. players scored, including 12 points, five rebounds and three steals from Breanna Stewart (Cicero North Syracuse H.S./North Syracuse, N.Y.) and 11 points and four rebounds from Elizabeth Williams (Princess Anne H.S./Virginia Beach, Va.). Additionally, Cierra Burdick (Butler H.S./Matthews, N.C.) collected 14 rebounds to go with her nine points, and Ariel Massengale (Bolingbrook H.S./Bolingbrook, Ill.) tallied six steals.

"I've seen us play a lot quicker and come out a lot faster in practices, so I think today we didn't come out with as much intensity as we could have," Lewis said. "We kind of waited for Canada to hit us in the mouth, and then we woke up."

Canada managed to compete with the USA over the first few minutes, and the U.S. lead was just three points, 12-9 with 2:02 remaining in the first quarter. From there, however, it was all red, white and blue as two consecutive 3-pointers from Morgan Tuck (Bolingbrook H.S./Bolingbrook, Ill.) launched an 8-0 U.S. run to close the first quarter up 20-9.

"I have been working on my outside shooting, going back to before tryouts," Tuck said. "I don't really like the post as much, and I wanted to play a wing, so I had to work on those skills.

"I knew I was open, so I shot it, and it just happened to go in," Tuck said of her first 3-pointer. "On the second shot I was more confident because I had just hit one, so I was just hoping that one was going in to."

Canada sank its own 3-pointer to start the second period, but Lewis answered right back from deep and the USA compiled another run, this time a 17-1 spurt that brought the score to 37-13 at the 5:37 mark. The USA, which matched Canada's six points over the remaining minutes of the second quarter, headed the halftime locker room with a 24-point lead, 43-19.

The U.S. defense was stifling in the third period, holding Canada to just seven points as it put 25 of its own on the board to close the third quarter up 68-26.

Despite signs of life from Canada, which scored 21 points in the fourth quarter, the USA managed to close the game with its biggest lead of the night, 93-47 as the buzzer sounded.

"The way we came out was expected," Burdick said. "We finished a little sloppy, but I guess that was a little bit of fatigue and the fact that we were up so much hit us mentally. But I feel confident in the way we played today."

The USA dominated the glass 55-30 and forced 24 Canadian turnovers but struggled from the free-throw line, where it was 16-of-27 for 59.3 percent.

"It's harder to shoot free throws in a close game, so as the games get tighter free-throw percentage usually goes down," Nelson said. "We were pretty poor tonight, so if it goes down, we will be dismal. That is something we have to improve."

The USA will play two more exhibition games in Alagon, Spain, before preliminary round play in the 2010 FIBA World Championship begins on July 16. The Americas face Australia at 6 p.m. on July 10 and Spain at 6 p.m. on July 11 (all times are CEST, which is +6 from EDT).

The United States was drawn into Preliminary Round Group A for the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship, along with host country France, Canada, Japan, Russia and Turkey. Competing in Preliminary Round Group B will be Argentina, Australia, Belgium, China, Mali and Spain.

The USA will open play on July 16 against tournament host France at 8:30 p.m. (all times CEST) followed by Russia at 5:30 p.m. on July 17 and Canada at 3:00 p.m. on July 18. Following a day off on July 19, the USA will wrap up preliminary round play against Turkey at 5:30 p.m. on July 20 and Japan at 5:30 p.m. on July 21.

The top four finishing teams from each preliminary round group advance to the medal quarterfinals, scheduled for July 23, the semifinals are slated for July 24 and the gold and bronze medal games will be contested July 25.

Nelson is assisted by Mike Armstrong of Perry Meridian High School (Ind.) and Dorena Bingham of Team Alaska AAU.