June 16, 2007 • Colorado Springs, Colorado

• Box Score: USA White 93, USA Blue 78
• Box Score: USA Red 87, Brazil 66
  
• 2007 Youth Development Festival Results/Schedule

Brookly Pope scores two of her eight points with a true leaner. Pope, who also grabbed eight rebounds, helped lead the Red squad to an 87-66 win over Brazil Saturday morning in USA Basketball Youth Development Festival action. (Photo: Steven Maikoski)

In Saturday morning's wrap-up of Women's Youth Development Festival preliminary round play, Tiffany Hayes (Winter Haven Senior H.S. / Winter Haven, Fla.) and Samantha Prahalis (Commack H.S. / Dix Hills, N.Y.) pumped in 15 points each to lead the USA White (3-0) to a strong 93-78 win over USA Blue (1-2). The win was not only the White's third in as many outings, but earned the White the No. 1 seed for Saturday evening's semifinals. The USA Red (2-1) squad, riding Nneka Ogwumike's (Cy-Fair H.S. / Cypress, Texas) game high 19 points, climbed into second to claim the No. 2 seed slot after handling Brazil (0-3) 87-66. The USA Basketball Youth Development Festival, which runs through Sunday, June 17, is being contested at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Play continues Saturday evening with the semifinal contests. Number one seed USA White will face the fourth seed Brazil, and in the other semifinal, number two seed USA Blue will take on number three seed USA Red. The winners of the semifinals will go head-to-head on June 17 at 9:00 a.m. (MDT) in the gold medal game, with the bronze medal contest starting at 8:15 a.m. (MDT).

The USA Basketball Youth Development Festival gives U.S. participants exposure to USA Basketball, international basketball rules and the opportunity to go head-to-head against the best prep players in North America and Brazil. The entry-level event combines position clinics, which target post or perimeter skills, with practice sessions and the four-team, five-game tournament. The Youth Development Festival features top U.S. high school rising juniors and seniors, and a junior national team from Brazil .

USA White 93, USA Blue 78

Despite an impressive 13 point, 10 rebound performance by USA Blue Team forward Alyssia Brewer, the Blue squad was unable to untrack the USA White Team that rolled to a 93-78 victory.

Despite USA Blue jumping out to a 29-14 advantage after the first period, USA White pushed the tempo and battled the remaining three periods to earn a 93-78 win, its third consecutive win in as many games.

"We just kept running, and I don't think they could stop us," said Prahalis, who in addition to her 15 points added seven rebounds and six assists. "We just kept pushing the ball, and pushing the ball and attacking as a team. Personally, I feel like I did alright distributing the ball and hitting the open shots when I had them. When I have fun I seem to play better, and we had a lot of fun running today."

Alyssia Brewer (Sapulpa H.S. / Sapulpa, Okla.) and Chay Shegog (Brooke Point H.S. / Stafford Va.) combined for 12 first quarter points to help the Blue jet out to a 29-14 lead.

But a 3-pointer from Prahalis and a traditional 3-point play from Taylor Turnbow (Stephenson H.S. / Stone Mountain, Ga.) less than one minute into the second period launched a lopsided 12 minutes in which the White outscored the Blue 35-17. Another 3-pointer, this time from the White's Hayes closed the first half with the White up 49-46.
The low-scoring third period neither hurt the White or helped the Blue as both teams scored 16 points, and the White lead remained at three points, 65-62, headed into the fourth quarter.

It was a 16-6 White run early in the fourth period, including a combined nine points from Hayes and Skylar Diggins (Washington H.S. / South Bend, Ind.), that put USA Blue away for good.

In addition to Hayes and Prahalis each scoring 15 points, Monique Oliver (North Las Vegas H.S. / North Las Vegas, Nev.) tallied 13 points and Diggins recorded 10 for the White Team. Caroline Doty (Germantown Academy / Ft. Washington, Pa.), who scored seven points and dished four assists, took four offensive charges.

Brewer led all USA Blue scorers and recorded a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double; Glory Johnson (Webb School of Knoxville / Knoxville, Tenn.) added 10 points and nine rebounds; Ayana Dunning (Eastmoor Academy / Columbus, Ohio) grabbed 10 boards; and Shegog tallied 11 points and six rebounds.

USA Red 87, Brazil 66
With Ogwumike leading the way offensively with 19 points, the Red ran away from Brazil 87-66 in Saturday's morning session at the Women's Youth Development Festival.

The USA Red Team and the Brazilians battled evenly for the first quarter. Holding a 25-23 advantage after one period, Red head coach Jackie Boswell's (Seton Keough H.S. / Maryland Magic AAU) team was helped by Shekinna Stricklen's (Morrilton H.S. / Morrilton, Ark) five offensive rebounds in the first half, two of which were fed to Brittany Rayburn (Paul L. Dunbar H.S. / Fort Worth, Texas) behind the 3-point line. Rayburn's pair of 3-pointers approaching the midway point of the second quarter furthered the Red advantage from 29-25 after Stricklen's tip-in at 8:44 to 37-29 after the second Rayburn three with 5:40 remaining in the half.

Rayburn took six 3-pointers in the first half, connecting on three, but earned praise from her coach and teammates because she opened up the post.

"That's huge," Boswell said . "The one time she was looking to pass, I told her that was great but not to pass up any open shots. She was getting the complete green light."
Added teammate Tierra Ruffin-Pratt (Attica H.S. / Attica, Ind.) who scored nine points to compliment three rebounds, three assists, "It got everybody hyped. It gave everybody more energy to get up for the game, so everybody was able to get back on defense and play harder."

The Red Team's aggressiveness on both ends of the court after Rayburn's threes, including four steals from four different players, set the tone for the rest of the game, and for the time being, gave Boswell's team a 50-33 advantage at the half.

The 6-2 Ogwumike did most of her damage in the second half, scoring 12 of her 19 after the intermission. She scored five points on a pair of free-throws and a 3-pointer in less than a minute in the third quarter.

Pleased by the balanced effort, Boswell noticed marked improvement from Friday's contests, including all-around efforts from Brooklyn Pope and Ruffin-Pratt.

"Brooklyn's so strong. She's loving being here, and she's playing really hard for us and looking for her teammates.

"Tierra is a tough player to guard. She's getting at it defensively. When we were down a little bit yesterday, she was the difference. She was coming up with rebounds, she was going to the basketball and kind of taking her team on her shoulders."

Pope racked up eight points and eight rebounds as well as three steals, and Nikki Speed (Marlborough H.S. / Pasadena, Calif.) also scored eight points, dished out five assists and collected two steals for the victors.

"I admire my team because I feel like we're taking it seriously about roles. We're cheering for each other. These kids are not used to sitting on the bench, but they're doing it. I thought we played really well. We've been talking a lot about defense, and I felt like we really came together defensively," Boswell said.