It’s Total Domination For USA In 132-64 Win Over Egypt

July 6, 2010 • Hamburg, Germany

• Box Score

The task facing the Egyptian U17 basketball team Tuesday had to seem as formidable as was the building of the ancient pyramids in their home country. The pyramids still stand today, but Egypt (0-4) will want to forget the result of this FIBA U17 World Championship game as the U.S. improved to 4-0 with a resounding 132-64 victory in Hamburg, Germany.

In a balanced scoring effort, seven USA players scored in double figures. The scoring parade was headed by 18 points from Brad Beal (Chaminade College Prep H.S. / St. Louis, Mo.) and Michael Gilchrist (St. Patrick H.S. / Somerdale, N.J.), while Justin Anderson (Montrose Christian School, Md. / Montross, Va.) and Chasson Randle (Rock Island H.S. / Rock Island, Ill.) each contributed 16 points, Marquis Teague (Pike H.S. / Indianapolis, Ind.) added 12, and André Drummond (St. Thomas More School / Middletown, Conn.) and Adonis Thomas (Melrose H.S. / Cordova, Tenn.) were credited with 11 points.

Standing on top of the Group A preliminary standings with a 4-0 mark, the USA men close out preliminary play facing Serbia on Wednesday. The USA is assured of advancing to the July 9 medal round quarterfinals as the top four finishing teams from each preliminary round group move on. Quarterfinal round winners advance to the medal semifinals games on July 10 and the gold and bronze medal games to be contested on July 11.

“We end up with Serbia which is a really good opponent to end up with before the medal round. Now we want to come back and work on some of our pressure defense stuff and just get back to improving. The biggest thing we want to do going into the last game is see some improvement in a couple of areas,” USA U17 World Championship Team and Mid-Prairie High School (Iowa) head coach Don Showalter said.

“Pool B (from where the USA’s quarterfinal opponent will come from) is pretty tough. Spain could be the fourth team in that pool and they won the European (U16) Championship last year. It’s going to be a dogfight. When you get through the pool play then it’s one and done, you can’t win the gold medal if you lose one.”

While the USA’s scoring was balanced, so were the Red, White and Blue’s rebounding and assists.

Drummond accounted for a team leading nine rebounds and four blocked shots, while Johnny O’Bryant (Eastside H.S. / Cleveland, Miss.) added eight rebounds and Gilchrist pulled down seven.

Quinn Cook (DeMatha H.S. / Bowie, Md.) had his second consecutive game of double figure assists, dishing for 10 to go with eight points, while Teague and Tony Wroten, Jr. (Garfield H.S. / Seattle, Wash.) were right behind with eight assists each.

“We had 36 assists and Cook, Wroten and Teague had 26 out of those 36 assists, so we were distributing the ball very, very well and I feel good about where we’re at as a team right now,” said Showalter.

Cook opened the game with a three to give the U.S. a lead it never relinquished. Then Beal picked up where he left off yesterday and nailed back-to-back threes to push the Americans to a 9-2 lead before 2:30 had passed in the game.

The U.S. led 14-6 with 5:43 showing on the scoreboard and the rout was officially on after the USA reeled off 12 straight points to grab control 29-8. Enjoying a 38-16 lead after the first quarter, the U.S. outscored the outmanned Egyptian squad 38-6 in the second stanza and owned a 76-22 lead at halftime.

“Realistically, we knew we were a better team that Egypt going in,” said Showlater. “I was really proud of our players from the standpoint of their preparations. We didn’t take Egypt lightly and I think that the thing our players have learned to understand is that we’re not taking any team lightly in this U17 World Championship. “Our preparations this morning were unbelievable. I thought we had the best practice since we’ve been here in Germany. Our focus was tremendous and that’s part of the reason we played well. When these young men decide to play with the focus that they had tonight they’re a pretty good team.”

For the evening, the U.S. shot 57.6 percent from the field, won the battle on the glass 57-47; forced Egypt into 26 turnovers that accounted for 38 points; and recorded 36 assists on 53 made shots, and snagged 17 steals.

Cook, who had 14 assists in Monday’s victory over China, admitted its fun being point guard on team so wealthy in talent. “It’s the most fun you can have because you’re getting everybody the ball where they want it and you’re making everybody else look good. It’s a blessing to play with these guys and I just thank those guys for making the shots. I’m just getting them the ball and they’re converting, so I thank them for that.”

Other game results on Tuesday saw Canada (3-1) easily dump South Korea (0-4) 95-74; China (2-2) rallied in the fourth quarter to upend Argentina (1-3) 76-64; Poland (4-0) won its fourth straight, but it took overtime as it bested Spain (1-3) 88-82; and Australia (2-2) held off Germany (2-2) for a 62-58 victory.

Serving as assistant coaches for the 2009-10 USA Developmental National Team and 2010 USA U17 World Championship Team are Herman Harried, head coach at Lake Clifton High School (Md.), and Kevin Sutton, head coach at Montverde Academy (Fla.).

“I want to congratulate our guys for coming out and bringing the energy and coming out focused and ready to play today,” remarked USA guard Randle. “It was great to get out there and see everybody do well. Now we need to continue to rebound and continue to play good defense and if we do that I think we’ll be fine.