Stanford sophomore Anthony Brown scored 10 points, one of seven Americans to reach double figures, as the U.S. U19 men’s national basketball team opened preliminary play at the U19 World Championships in Liepaja, Latvia with a 115-60 victory over Egypt on Thursday.
The Americans continue pool play with a game against Serbia on Friday.
The U.S. scored the game’s first 22 points and the rout was on. Brown, 4-of-5 from the field, did a little of everything for the Americans, adding five rebounds and recording three assists in 17 minutes.
“Obviously we’re pleased to be in the tournament, it’s the best 19-and-under teams in the world, and we feel we were fortunate to come and play well,” U.S. coach Paul Hewitt said. “The young men focused on the things we wanted to focus on, defensively especially. I like the fact that we shared the basketball, and we had a lot of guys get some good looks at the basket and make some shots. ”
Doug McDermott led the team with 19 points, followed by Joe Jackson and Jeremy Lamb, each with 15.
“We needed to get our confidence back after losing our two exhibitions,” Jackson said. “This team is talented enough to go out and play harder than what we played like the last couple of times.”
The Americans shot nearly 57 percent from the field and were 13-of-24 from long range.
“We played better defense and when you get stops it helps your offense,” Lamb said. “It was real important to knock down shots and get this win, so we can have a little more confidence going into the next couple of games.”
Brown has yet to play meaningful minutes for the U.S. He thinks that no matter what else happens, he will have learned some valuable lessons from playing with some of the top, young college players.
“I think it will help just by giving me confidence,” Brown told the Arizona Republic. “We lose our leading scorer (Jeremy Green) so I feel like I’ll have a bigger role next year. I just want to take all the stuff I learn here and apply it to our team next year.”
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports