University of North Carolina Athletics
Coby White had 15 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals in the win.
Photo by: USA Basketball
White Scores 15 As USA U18 Men Rout Puerto Rico
June 13, 2018 | Men's Basketball
by USA Basketball
ST. CATHARINES, Ontario—The USA Men's U18 National Team (3-0) opened up a 15-point first-quarter lead, led 56-29 at halftime and sprinted on to post a 115-71 victory over Puerto Rico (2-1) at the 2018 FIBA Americas U18 Championship on Tuesday night in St. Catharines, Ontario.
Incoming University of North Carolina freshman guard Coby White tallied 15 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals for the Americans.
The win earned the USA the top seed out of Group A heading into the June 14-16 knock-out round where it will face Group B's fourth-place finisher Ecuador (0-3) at 6 p.m. (EDT) June 14.
The USA in its three preliminary round games scored over 100 points in each contest and has averaged 112.7 points per game.
Quentin Grimes (College Park H.S./The Woodlands, Texas) led all scorers with 20 points, White (Greenfield H.S./Goldsboro, N.C.) added 15 points, Cole Anthony (Archbishop Molloy H.S./Briarwood, N.Y.) tallied 14 points, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (Bishop Miege H.S./Shawnee Mission, Kan.) was credited with a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds , Matthew Hurt (John Marshall H.S./Rochester, Minn.) scored 12 points and Mark Watts Jr. (Old Redford Academy/Detroit, Mich.) finished with 11 points.
"It's been a really fun team to coach," said USA U18 and University of Kansas head coach Bill Self. "In the second half tonight we didn't share the ball like we had been. We've been really good at sharing the ball and we still had 32 assists, but it's a fun team. They're great kids. For only being together a week I think they handled themselves pretty well.
"We didn't create much at all from our defense today," Self added. "Yesterday we could have scored a lot (more points off of our defense). But today our defense really didn't create a lot of stuff. Puerto Rico did a great job of handling the ball against our full-court man. We've got enough weapons that we can put some points on the board. I thought we played bad offensively and then you look up and you still shot 51 percent and had 32 assists, so that's pretty good."
Leading from wire-to-wire, the USA got out to an early 14-4 lead. After a Puerto Rico bucket made it 14-6, the U.S. scored seven-straight points to go up 21-6 and never again let the lead fall below double digits.
At the end of the first quarter, which finished with the USA up 31-18, the U.S. had forced Puerto Rico into nine of its 22 turnovers of the night and had dished out 10 assists on 11 buckets.
The second quarter was much of the same as the USA opened with a 14-4 run to expand its lead 45-22 and cruised to its 56-29 halftime score.
Puerto Rico won the third quarter 24-22, but was never a threat to the U.S., which outscored the islanders 37-18 in the final stanza to close with the 44-point victory.
It was another balanced scoring effort in which 11 members of the team put up points and five had four or more assists, which Grimes says is important to his team's success.
"We want everybody to have a good feel for the game going into possibly the championship game," Grimes said. "We want to make sure everybody's confidence is high, so we can go out there and play as a team and get the job done."
"I think it's great," added Robinson-Earl of the team's chemistry. "Since we're hanging out all the time, we're comfortable and we can trust each other. I feel like we're confident that when we pass the ball to each other that we're going to knock down shots and make the right plays for each other."
Anthony, Josiah James (Porter-Gaud School/Charleston, S.C.), who contributed five points and six boards, and Ayo Dosunmu (Morgan Park H.S./Chicago, Ill.), who scored nine points, led the team with five assists apiece; Grimes and White dished out four assists each.
ST. CATHARINES, Ontario—The USA Men's U18 National Team (3-0) opened up a 15-point first-quarter lead, led 56-29 at halftime and sprinted on to post a 115-71 victory over Puerto Rico (2-1) at the 2018 FIBA Americas U18 Championship on Tuesday night in St. Catharines, Ontario.
Incoming University of North Carolina freshman guard Coby White tallied 15 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals for the Americans.
The win earned the USA the top seed out of Group A heading into the June 14-16 knock-out round where it will face Group B's fourth-place finisher Ecuador (0-3) at 6 p.m. (EDT) June 14.
The USA in its three preliminary round games scored over 100 points in each contest and has averaged 112.7 points per game.
Quentin Grimes (College Park H.S./The Woodlands, Texas) led all scorers with 20 points, White (Greenfield H.S./Goldsboro, N.C.) added 15 points, Cole Anthony (Archbishop Molloy H.S./Briarwood, N.Y.) tallied 14 points, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl (Bishop Miege H.S./Shawnee Mission, Kan.) was credited with a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds , Matthew Hurt (John Marshall H.S./Rochester, Minn.) scored 12 points and Mark Watts Jr. (Old Redford Academy/Detroit, Mich.) finished with 11 points.
"It's been a really fun team to coach," said USA U18 and University of Kansas head coach Bill Self. "In the second half tonight we didn't share the ball like we had been. We've been really good at sharing the ball and we still had 32 assists, but it's a fun team. They're great kids. For only being together a week I think they handled themselves pretty well.
"We didn't create much at all from our defense today," Self added. "Yesterday we could have scored a lot (more points off of our defense). But today our defense really didn't create a lot of stuff. Puerto Rico did a great job of handling the ball against our full-court man. We've got enough weapons that we can put some points on the board. I thought we played bad offensively and then you look up and you still shot 51 percent and had 32 assists, so that's pretty good."
Leading from wire-to-wire, the USA got out to an early 14-4 lead. After a Puerto Rico bucket made it 14-6, the U.S. scored seven-straight points to go up 21-6 and never again let the lead fall below double digits.
At the end of the first quarter, which finished with the USA up 31-18, the U.S. had forced Puerto Rico into nine of its 22 turnovers of the night and had dished out 10 assists on 11 buckets.
The second quarter was much of the same as the USA opened with a 14-4 run to expand its lead 45-22 and cruised to its 56-29 halftime score.
Puerto Rico won the third quarter 24-22, but was never a threat to the U.S., which outscored the islanders 37-18 in the final stanza to close with the 44-point victory.
It was another balanced scoring effort in which 11 members of the team put up points and five had four or more assists, which Grimes says is important to his team's success.
"We want everybody to have a good feel for the game going into possibly the championship game," Grimes said. "We want to make sure everybody's confidence is high, so we can go out there and play as a team and get the job done."
"I think it's great," added Robinson-Earl of the team's chemistry. "Since we're hanging out all the time, we're comfortable and we can trust each other. I feel like we're confident that when we pass the ball to each other that we're going to knock down shots and make the right plays for each other."
Anthony, Josiah James (Porter-Gaud School/Charleston, S.C.), who contributed five points and six boards, and Ayo Dosunmu (Morgan Park H.S./Chicago, Ill.), who scored nine points, led the team with five assists apiece; Grimes and White dished out four assists each.
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