USA Red Stays Perfect While USA White Storms Back To Dramatic Late Win
There was a little bit of everything in Saturday afternoon’s final preliminary round games at the 2007 USA Basketball Men’s Youth Development Festival. There were sensational individual performances, big plays made at crucial times, one game went down to the wire, while the other saw a team remain perfect with another dominating display.
The USA White Team (2-1) got 112 of its 125 points from four players and stormed back from a 23-point third quarter deficit to stun the USA Blue (1-2) 125-120 in a game decided in the final seconds. Tyreke Evans (American Christian / Aston, Pa.) led the White to the victory with 37 points and Greg Monroe (Helon Cox H.S. / Gretna, La.) added 29 points and 14 boards. Delvon Roe (St. Edward H.S. / Lakewood, Ohio) carried the Blue, scoring 32 points and grabbing 15 rebounds, while Jrue Holiday (Campbell H.S. / Chatsworth, Calif.) was as impressive as anyone, posting a spectacular triple-double of 28 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists.
The USA Red Team (3-0) continued to steam along in very impressive fashion, sailing by Brazil (0-3) 137-102 to improve its record to a perfect 3-0. Eight of its Red squad’s 10 players scored in double figures, led by forward Devin Ebanks (St. Thomas More H.S., Conn. / Queens, N.Y.) who finished with 29 points on 13-of-19 shooting. Brazil’s Cesar Mapelli turned in his own headline performance, recording 33 points and 11 rebounds. The USA Red Team enters the semifinals averaging an eye-popping 135.0 points a game and owns a 18.0 margin of victory in its three wins.
Saturday evening's semifinal contests will be an exact rematch of this morning’s preliminary round games. No. 1 seed USA Red will face No. 4 seed Brazil, while No. 2 seed USA White will face No. 3 seed USA Blue. Semifinal play begins at 6:00 p.m. (MDT). The winners of the semifinals will go head-to-head on June 17 at 8:30 a.m. (MDT) in the gold medal game, with the bronze medal contest starting at 8:15 a.m. (MDT). The Youth Development Festival, which runs through Sunday, June 24, is being contested at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
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.
USA White 125, USA Blue 120
The duo of Evans and Monroe combined for 32 of USA White’s 42 fourth-quarter points to overcome Holiday’s triple-double and a USA Blue Team that had enjoyed a lead of as many as 23 points in the third quarter.
The USA Blue squad had opened up a 28-23 lead after the first quarter. And connecting on just 9-of-23 field goal attempts and turning the ball over seven times, the USA White continued to struggle in the second quarter. The USA Blue, benefitting in the second quarter from nine points from Holiday and eight points from Roe, outscored the White 38-26 and at halftime was up comfortably 66-49.
The third quarter was saw the Blue push its advantage to 23, 80-57, with 7:41 to play. However, the White was not ready to call it a game. Powered by Evans and Monroe, the White squad fought back and at the end of three periods of play had reduced the Blue Team’s lead to 97-83.
Just four minutes into the final stanza, Blue’s 14-point lead was gone as a Monroe dunk capped a 16-3 White run that left the game all even at 99 with 8:18 remaining.
An old-fashioned three-point play from Holiday at 8:08 in the fourth sparked a 7-0 Blue run, which was halted after Monroe saved a rebound and dished to a wide open Evans for a 3-pointer that left the score 109-102 in Blue’s favor with 6:33 to go.
A Monroe’s putback at 5:10 gave White its first second-half lead, 110-109. The two teams battled back and forth over the next four minutes, and while Evan accounted for nine points and Monroe two, five different Blue players scored and with just a minute left the White led 121-118.
DeMarcus Cousins (Erwin H.S. / Birmingham, Ala.) scored for USA Blue on a putback with 44 seconds left to close the gap to a single point, 121-120. The score remained that way as the White failed to score and the Blue turned the ball over on it’s next two possessions, including a offensive charging call with just 11 seconds left. Now forced to foul White, Luscious sank two free attempts to put White up 123-120 with 10 second to go.
USA Blue missed a golden opportunity to tie the game when, with just five seconds left, Jerime Anderson (Canyon H.S. / Anaheim, Calif.) was fouled on a 3-point attempt. Anderson missed his first two charity tries, and intentionally missed his third hoping his team could secure the rebound and get one last chance. However, after missing the rim, White was awarded the ball out-of-bounds.
White guard Travis Releford (Bishop Miege / Kansas City, Mo.) was fouled with two seconds left and made both his free throws to bring the final score to 125-120.
USA Red 137, Brazil 102
Following a first quarter in which both Brazil and the USA Red Team exchanged runs, Drew Gordon (Archbishop Mitty H.S. / San Jose, Calif.) and the USA Red Team put together a 19-0 run to start the second quarter and open the way to an easy 137-102 victory.
Outscoring Brazil 41-18 in the second quarter, the Red Team enjoyed a comfortable 59-36 advantage at intermission, and Ebanks was nearly halfway to his team leading total of 33 points.
Erving Walker (Christ the King H.S. / Brooklyn, N.Y.) nailed a trio of 3-pointers in the opening three minutes of the third stanza, and after Willie Warren (North Crowley H.S. / Fort Worth, Texas) threw in another less than four minutes into third quarter, the Red had a sizeable 75-48 lead
Eight players notched double figures for the Red. Leslie McDonald (Briarcrest Christian School / Memphis, Tenn.) scored 14 points; Farouq Aminu (Norcross H.S. / Norcross, Ga.) and Gordon added 13 points each; and Ed Davis (Benedictine H.S. / Richmond, Va.) Walker and Willie Warren each tossed in 12. Davis completed his double-double with 14 rebounds, while Aminu did the same with 12 rebounds.
{More at www.sportsfeatures.com ]
|
