USA U19 Women’s Stingy Defense Generates Dominating 90-64 Win Over Italy

July 26, 2011 • Puerto Montt, Chile

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Four players scored in double digits as the 2011 USA Basketball Women’s U19 World Championship Team (5-0) opened up 31-13 in the first quarter and its defensive effort went on to produce a lopsided 94-60 victory over Italy (2-3) at the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship on Tuesday evening in Puerto Montt, Chile.

Cierra Burdick (Butler H.S. / Matthews, N.C.) came off the bench and led the offensive push with a game-high 17 points and also grabbed a game-high nine rebounds; Breanna Stewart (Cicero-North Syracuse H.S. / North Syracuse, N.Y.), who had 10 points in the first quarter alone, finished with 15 points; Elizabeth Williams (Princess Anne H.S. / Virginia Beach, Va.) also scored 15 and Stefanie Dolson (Connecticut / Port Jervis, N.Y.) pitched in 14; while Ariel Massengale (Bolingbrook H.S. / Bolingbrook, Ill.) dished out nine of the USA’s 24 assists.

Assured of advancing to the medal quarterfinals, the USA closes second round play with a July 27 contest against also undefeated Canada (5-0) at 1:30 p.m. (all times EDT) to determine the pool’s top two seeds.

“I was really happy with our intensity and our focus,” said Jennifer Rizzotti, USA U19 World Championship Team and University of Hartford head coach. “We talked a lot today about not just thinking about who we’re playing, but being more accountable on the defensive end for our own guy and playing screens better, just being more focused and getting better as the game went on. Not only did our starters do a nice job, I thought our energy off the bench was the best it’s been the whole tournament.”

“E (Elizabeth Williams) definitely stepped up,” stated Burdick. “She was catching the ball and finishing well. The posts overall were all in double figures, so we were hitting shots that we were missing against China, which is really good. Ariel (Massengale) did a great job running the floor and really taking control of the floor like a point guard should and I was proud of her.”

Not wanting a repeat of their contest against China, the USA women stormed out of the gates early.

With Italy up 5-4, Massengale picked off a pass and sprinted down the court for a layup at 7:42, giving her side a lead it would never relinquish. Massengale’s bucket also spurred an 11-2 run that distanced the Italians 15-7 at the 4:44 mark in the first quarter. With 2:55 to play in the period and the USA’s lead 20-13, the red, white and blue reeled off 11 unanswered points to go up 31-13.

“China showed us that we can’t come out lackadaisical and nonchalant, because we can easily get an ‘L’ and put an ‘L’on our record,” added Burdick. “We just had to come out with more energy on the defensive end and that just transferred over to the offensive end.”

Steadily increasing its lead, with 5:48 to play before half the Americans owned a 39-21 advantage. Stewart then hit a jumper off an inbounds pass, igniting a 7-0 mini-run that upped the lead to 46-21. The USA continued applying defensive pressure, which forced 15 Italian turnovers on 11 steals, igniting its offense and by halftime the game was well in hand, 51-28.

In the first half the USA’s red-hot scoring machine netted a sizzling 61.7 percent (21-34 FGs) of its shots, including 40 percent (4-of-10) from 3-point, and already had 14 assists.

“Italy played hard, but today we came out with more intensity on defense and were able to get stops,” said Massengale, who also had three steals and just one turnover. “We let that dictate our offense. After yesterday’s game we kind of took that personal, the way we played, and knew that we could do better. Tonight we were just competing against ourselves.”

The second half was a more even match as the USA won the third quarter 22-13 and the fourth by 21-19.

“A lot of people played well,” added Rizzotti. “Obviously Breanna (Stewart) and Liz (Williams) scored points, but there’s a reason they’re getting a lot of easy baskets. Ariel was a tremendous floor general today. She had nine assists, she probably should have had about 15. She really got the ball to people in easy positions to score. Cierra and Jordan both brought tremendous energy off the bench. Their defensive energy, their communication with their teammates and then just being simple and taking care of the ball and making plays on offense. They did a lot. They brought a lot of energy to our team. You can really see them coming together.”

The U.S. finished out the game shooting its tournament-best 55.4 percent (36-65 FGs) from the field and 35.7 percent (5-14 3pt FGs) from beyond the arc, while limiting Italy to just 39.3 percent (22-56 FGs) from the floor and 30.4 percent (7-23 3pt FGs) from afar. Outrebounding Italy 44-22, the U.S. forced 21 turnovers and had 15 steals, while only coughing up the ball 16 times on the offensive end.

Nene Diene was Italy’s top scorer with 11 points.

In today’s other Group E second round games, Russia (2-3) downed China (1-4) 65-53, while Canada thwarted a second-half comeback attempt by Japan (3-2) and pulled out the 68-60 win. In Group F games, Taiwan (1-3) is leading host Chile (1-3) 51-32 at the end of three quarters, France (3-1) takes on undefeated Brazil (4-0) at 8:15 p.m. and unbeaten Australia (4-0) will face Spain (2-2) in the day’s final game at 9:00 p.m.

In classification play, Argentina (2-3) finished in 13th place with a 89-69 win over Slovenia (1-4).

The top four teams from each second round group will advance to the July 29 quarterfinals. The 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.

The top four teams from each second round group will advance to the July 29 quarterfinals. The 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.