USA Basketball

USA game vs El Salvador starting at 3 PM Sunday. First game of the day.

 

Yes, it looked like she came down on the the players foot and landed wrong, very difficult to watch.

 

And the games to gold continue.

 

forgot the game was at 2pm, not 3.
87-27 win for the USA. A 60 pt win but their lowest scoring game so far.

12 blocks by the USA kinda encouraged El Salvador to attempt 30 3pters, almost half of their 63 shots attempted. Best game at the FT line at 73.1% (19-26).

Boxscore: http://www.fiba.basketball/americas/u18women/2018/game/0508/USA-El-Salvador#tab=boxscore

 

Another step closer to gold. USA goes against Colombia at 6:30 PM CST.

 

None of the four teams in the semis medal round had difficult games in getting here.
http://www.fiba.basketball/americas...a-vs-argentina-in-the-continental-semi-finals

 

Colombia is going to be definitely mismatched inside, especially if Paz gets into foul trouble. From their roster:

#6 Yuliany PAZ Center 6'5"

#9 Naylee CORTES Power Forward 5'10"

#11 Maria ESCOBAR Power Forward 6'0"

#18 Esperanza MORALES Center 6'0"

#19 Daniela GONZALEZ Power Forward 5'11"

 

Colombia will be the best 3pt shooting team the USA faces to date, hitting just over 32% of their 3s. They take 42% of their shots from BTA. They may end up taking more than that in this game.

 

7-9 USA up midway through the first. A tougher first quarter than expected. Paz was able to score over the USA defense on a lob pass and had a block that our bigs are not used to earlier.

 

19-18 USA. Paz with a block at the end of the quarter and recovered the ball. USA is having tougher going than expected with Paz in there to counter the USA bigs. The Colombia guards are pretty quick themselves.

 

damn feed keeps freezing up. On the best game yet, too.
Colombia is going to keep putting up 3s but they are getting inside as well, just not finishing as well. Paz is making a big difference in the game.

 

28-26 USA. Colombia just missed a layup after a guard penetrated inside past our posts. USA hit a 3 off that fastbreak.

 

Paz with five blocks, USA with three.

 

Paz is laboring. USA depth inside is starting to pay off. But she is impressive.

 

with about 3 & 1/2 minutes to go, USA went on 14-0 run to open up a 42-26 lead at the half.

As Pas continues to get tired during the second half, USA should be able to draw away in this game.

 

58-41 USA at the end of the third quarter. USA starting to put some distance between them and Colombia.

 

83-47 final with the USA advancing to the gold medal game. They await the winner of Argentina and Canada.

This was a guard oriented win with three of the four players in double digits coming from the backcourt.

Colombia took 25 of 60 shots from BTA and made 8. USA hit 10 of 23 shots from BTA, out of a total of 68 FGs attempted.

Boxscore: http://www.fiba.basketball/americas/u18women/2018/game/0608/USA-Colombia#tab=boxscore

Gold medal game is tomorrow at 8:30 PM CST.

 

last obstacle for gold!

 

USA vs Canada should be a good game. Not sure that it will be too close, though. Canada does the only player averaging a double double in Center Christina Morra (#15, 6-3; 14.8 ppg, 11.8 rpg) in the tournament.

Like Colombia's Paz, as long as she is in the game, she will provide Canada with a strong presence inside on both ends. Unlike Paz, Morra is a scoring threat, hitting over 51% of her FGs. Although her fellow center, Sammie Martin is 6-2, she does not play a lot. How long Canada can hang with the USA may depend on how long Morra can stay on the court, opening up the perimeter for Canada's outside shooters and getting defensive rebounds to limit the USA's ability to score off offensive boards.

 

USA overcomes Canada to grab U18 gold!
https://www.usab.com/news-events/news/2018/08/wu18-game-6-can.aspx

 

I would guess the last story about the U17 and U18 teams.
USA Basketball gold medalists share memories from FIBA U17 World Cup, FIBA Americas U18 Championship