USA Men Crush U.S. Virgin Islands With Dazling 123-59 Victory

� Led By 22 Points From Carmelo Anthony and Michael Redd, Entire U.S. Roster Gets On The Board �

In a crowd-pleasing display of 3-point accuracy and high-flying dunks, the USA Men's Senior National Team (2-0) sizzled in a lopsided 123-59 victory over the U.S. Virgin Islands (0-1) Thursday night at the Thomas & Mack Center. After a day off Friday, the USA resumes first-round action against Canada on Saturday (3 p.m. EDT) and then meets Brazil on Sunday (9 p.m. EDT).

Led by 22 points from Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets) and Michael Redd (Milwaukee Bucks), the USA is proving itself worthy competition for Las Vegas' other high-flying, action-packed attractions. Improving its record in the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournaments to 28-0 overall, the 123 points scored is the USA's highest output in the competition since the gold medal game of the 1992 Tournament of the Americas.

'What do you get out of a game like that? One, you get a win. Two, you get to see if your team would be focused throughout. Three, for us, we got a good chance to work on our zone defense, which we did a really good job with and (we) stayed out of foul trouble. So, you do get something out of a big win. The score is irrelevant if you can maintain focus for the full 40 minutes, and I thought our guys did,' said USA and Duke University Hall of Fame head coach Mike Krzyzewski.

'Michael's (Redd) a key guy for us and that is something we did not have last year on our team,' continued Krzyzewski. 'By the way, he's one of the few guys that I've seen in coaching in over 30 years where guys are just so happy that he is shooting the ball. Everybody on our team, and we have great scorers on our team, they're all happy when he shoots the ball.'

Anthony put the USA on the scoreboard with two free throws and then went on to score eight more points in the first four minutes to help the U.S. lead quickly reach 10, 17-7, at 6:24. From there, a red-hot Redd lit it up and scored 15 points, including three 3-pointers, in the stanza's final five minutes to help the USA to a 42-13 advantage after one.

'First of all, I want to thank Coach Krzyzewski for his vote of confidence,' Redd said. 'We had a conversation a couple of days ago and he really told me what he expected of me and to be ready at all times. He said, �When you get out there, just go play basketball.' That was the vote of confidence I needed for this team.

'I'm so grateful just to be on this team. We have great, terrific players on this team. Usually I'm shooting over two or three hands during the season and now I'm getting wide open looks, which is beautiful.'

The U.S. Virgin Islands struck first in the second period when Jason Edwin converted two free-throws and then hung tough with the USA, outscoring the Americans 26-24 in the second period, and the USA headed to the locker room with a 66-39 lead at the intermission.

There were plenty of highlights for ESPN's SportsCenter in the third period as the USA opened the stanza with a 24-5 run that included back-to-back alley-oops in the quarter's sixth minute, from Jason Kidd (New Jersey Nets) to LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers) at 6:30 and then from Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers) to Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic) at 6:03. The U.S. lead had stretched to 94-50 after three periods, and then to the game's final of 123-59 after the USA outscored its opponent 29-9 in the fourth quarter.

In addition to his 22 points, Anthony also recorded six rebounds and four assists; Mike Miller (Memphis Grizzlies) and Amar� Stoudemire (Phoenix Suns) each contributed 13 points; Deron Williams (Utah Jazz) added 10 points and four assists. Tayshaun Prince (Detroit Pistons) collected 13 rebounds, while both Kidd and James passed off for five assists.

Serenaded by the crowd with 'Happy Birthday' during two made free throws, Bryant celebrated his 29th birthday by scoring nine points and dishing four assists in just under 16 minutes of action.

The USA was an impressive 8-for-10 from three in the first period, but cooled off to a solid 15-of-30 for the game. The USA also shared the ball well, as evidenced by its 30 assists on 43 made baskets.

The U.S. Virgin Islands featured only one player in double-digit scoring; Kevin Sheppard scored 11 points.

In other tournament action Thursday, Argentina (1-0) topped Uruguay (1-1) 90-69, Canada (1-1) edged Venezuela (0-2) 80-73 and Puerto Rico (1-1) handled Panama (0-2) 108-67.