USA U19 Women Put Away Argentina 83-49, Advance To Second Round

July 23, 2011 • Puerto Montt, Chile

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Utilizing a well-balanced scoring effort, the 2011 USA Basketball Women’s U19 World Championship Team (3-0) ran away with a 83-49 victory over South American rival Argentina (0-3) on Saturday afternoon at the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship in Puerto Montt, Chile. The U.S. advances as the top seed out of Group B, along with Japan (1-1) and Russia (1-1) and will face the top three finishing teams out of Group A to form Group E in the July 25-27 second round.

Eleven of the USA’s players scored and notched at least five points against Argentina, led by 12 from Breanna Stewart (Cicero-North Syracuse H.S. / North Syracuse, N.Y.) and 11 from Diamond DeShields (Norcross H.S. / Norcross, Ga.), while Cierra Burdick (Butler H.S. / Matthews, N.C.) pulled down 10 rebounds to go with eight points, three assists and a pair of steals.

“We have all 12 players available and ready,” said Jennifer Rizzotti, USA U19 World Championship Team and University of Hartford head coach. “They all play double-digit minutes, and I think that’s one of the advantages that we have over a lot of teams. We have a lot of depth on our bench and we have a lot of good players who can play. I felt that we had a chance to really give people the opportunity to play today and rest some of our starters.

“We’re a difficult team to scout, because you can’t worry about one or two players. Most teams have two or three players you have to focus on. On the U.S., we have eight or nine players you have to worry about. I told the players before the tournament started that any one of them can lead us in scoring on any night and they need to make sure they play their roles. Some nights it’ll be our post players scoring and some nights we’ll get more opportunity from our perimeter.”

Trailing for just 3:02 of the game, the USA was down 7-3 early on. However, defensive pressure, no let-up from substitutions and the USA’s fast-paced game offensive game wore down the Argentines.

“Argentina, they were running us early on and they were trying to get us tired,” said Stewart. “But then when once we put our next line of subs in, we had fresh legs and they didn’t. Then we were able to go on the run.”

Behind the scoring of seven different players, the U.S. reeled off 16 unanswered points to take command of the game 19-7 with 2:51 to play in the first quarter. By the time the first buzzer sounded, the U.S. was up 26-11.

Argentina cut the game to single digits with a pair of quick threes at the start of the second quarter, but any comeback attempt was short lived. Stefanie Dolson (Connecticut / Port Jervis, N.Y.) made one of two from the line to put the North Americans back up by 10 points and Morgan Tuck (Bolingbrook H.S. / Bolingbrook, Ill.) followed that up with a 3-pointer. Following an Argentine bucket at 7:18, the USA’s lead was 30-19. However, that was close as the game would get for the remainder of the contest.

Bria Hartley (Connecticut / North Babylon, N.Y.) scored all nine of her points against Argentina in a 14-1 run that put the game away, 44-20, with 14.8 seconds to go before half. Hartley’s points were the final nine in the run that included a pair of threes, a steal and layup and the back end of two from the line following another U.S. steal.

At the midway point, the USA’s lead remained at 24 points, 46-22.

“That’s Bria being Bria,” stated Dolson. “Bria’s a great player like that. She’s going to push the ball on the offense. She’s going to finish shots, knock down shots and at the same time, find people to pass the ball to. She does a great job. She knows when she’s hot and I know when she’s hot. So, I know when I’m getting the ball, I pass it to her and she’ll knock them down.”

The U.S. outscored Argentina 21-11 in the third quarter and was even at 16-16 in the fourth to close out preliminary play.

Argentina was led by Rocio Diaz, who had 14 points, while Diana Cabrera grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.

The USA, which doubled Argentina’s rebounds, 60-30, scored 32 points in the paint and received 49 points from its bench. The North Americans connected on 40.5 percent (30-74 FGs) of their shots from the field, including 26.9 percent (7-26 3pt FGs), while holding Argentina to a frigid 27.1 percent (16-59 FGs) overall, and forced 26 turnovers.

In today’s second Group B game, Japan (1-1) and Russia (1-1) face off at 6:54 p.m. (all times EDT) to determine Group B’s final order of finish. In Group A today, Canada (2-0) and Italy (2-0) battle at 6:00 p.m., while China (0-2) and Egypt (0-2) play at 8:15 p.m. to determine which team advances to the second round. In Group C, Australia (3-0) remained undefeated with a 67-45 win over France (2-1), while host Chile (1-2) was credited with a win due to Nigeria’s forfeit. In Group D, Spain (1-1) and Slovenia (0-2) play at 4:30 p.m., while Brazil (2-0) and Taiwan (1-1) play today’s final game at 9:00 p.m.

The second round Group F will be the top three teams out of preliminary Groups C and D. The U19 quarterfinals are slated for July 29; semifinals will be held on July 30 and the finals are scheduled for July 31. FIBATV.com will stream live online the medal semifinals and medal finals.

Only U.S. citizens who are 19 years old or younger (born on or after Jan. 1, 1992) are eligible for this team.

Assistant coaches for the USA U19 World Championship Team are Sue Semrau of Florida State University and Joi Williams of the University of Central Florida.

Originally known as the FIBA Junior World Championship, the tournament was held every four years from 1985 through 2005. FIBA now conducts the U19 World Championship every other year. Prior to this year’s start, USA women's teams were 49-11 all-time in U19/Junior World Championships, most recently capturing a third consecutive gold with an 8-1 record in 2009.