Team USA Improves to 4-0 By Beating Japan, 123-87
8/7/2001 11:14:56 AM | Men's Basketball
Craig Miller, USA Basketball
SAITAMA, Japan (August 7, 2001) – Taking advantage of its inside might, the USA (4-0) pounded Japan (1-3) 123-87 as Caron Butler (Connecticut/Racine, WI), Reggie Evans (Iowa/Pensacola, FL), Carlos Boozer (Duke/Juneau, AK) and Nick Collison (Kansas/Iowa City, IA) combined for 60 points and 39 rebounds Tuesday night at the World Championship For Young Men in Saitama, Japan.
It was the American's fourth straight win and preliminary round play concludes Wednesday with a showdown for first place in Group B with a game between undefeated USA and Israel in an 8:20 p.m. (Tokyo local time) game.
"We have to play much better defense the rest of this tournament," continued Boeheim. "We've been able to out score people and our offense has been very good. We have shot the ball very well but there will be games ahead when we won't make as many shots, the defense will be more difficult, we won't get the easy shots that we're getting, so our defense will have to pick up. We're going to have to play better defense to be successful the rest of the way."
The USA behind six points from Boozer opened the game with a 11-0 spurt and with 2:45 left in the opening quarter the Americans were in full control 27-9. However, Japan's 3-point attack came to life and after hitting five-of-nine 3-pointers in the first quarter, Japan had closed the USA lead to 36-23. The USA shot 70.0 percent (14-20 FGs) from the field and outrebounded Japan 17-4 in the first quarter.
The U.S. continued to have its way inside and its lead remained in double figures in the second quarter. With the USA holding a 47-36 lead with 6:07 to go in the second period, the Americans received some 3-point relief of their own. Assembling a 17-6 run that featured 3-pointers from Jameer Nelson (St. Joseph's/Chester, PA), Chris Duhon (Duke/Slidell, LA) and Troy Bell (Boston College/Minneapolis, MN), the U.S. opened up a 64-42 lead and ended the half on top 67-46 .
Leading 74-53 with 8:19 left in the third quarter, the USA moved out ahead 93-56 after going on a 19-3 scoring blitz that was highlighted by three 3-pointers from Jason Kapono (UCLA/Lakewood, CA). The U.S. sailed in for the 123-87 victory.
The USA offensive assault was paced by Butler and Evans who accounted for 17 points each, Boozer added 16, Bell finished with 13, Duhon had 12 and Collison finished with 10 points. Setting a USA single game record for most rebounds with 61, the U.S. also established single game marks for most field goals attempted (85) and blocked shots (8). Boozer and Collison led the U.S. on the glass snagging 11 boards each, while Evans pulled down 10. Michael Sweatney (Georgetown/Oxen Hill, Md.) set a U.S. single-game record for blocked shots, rejecting four, while posting nine points and four rebounds.
Japan finished the contest shooting 41.9 percent overall from the field, but made 11-of-26 shots from behind the 3-point line. The USA connected on 56.5 percent of its shots, including 45.0 (9-20 3pt FGs) from 3-point.
In other preliminary round play Tuesday, in Group B, Israel (4-0) defeated Argentina (2-2), 80-63, and Croatia (1-3) posted its first win of the Championship by trouncing South Korea (0-4), 137-72. In a critical showdown in Group A, Australia (3-1) jumped on previously unbeaten Slovenia (3-1) early and cruised to a 95-68 victory, causing a three-way tie between Australia, Slovenia and Spain for top honors in Group A. Dominican Republic (2-2) evened its record with a 107-76 win over Egypt (1-3), and Spain (3-1) held off winless Qatar (0-4) 75-69. The USA concludes preliminary play against Israel on Aug. 8. Quarterfinals play gets underway Aug. 10. The quarterfinals match the first-place team in each preliminary round group against the fourth-place finisher from the opposite group, and the second-place finishers in each group meet the third- place squads in the other group. Winners of the quarterfinals round games will meet in semifinals action on Aug. 11 and the medal games being held Aug. 12.
"We know Israel is a tremendous team. They came through last year and had to win a very difficult game against Yugoslavia just to get here and they did that. They have played extremely well here. They are very well coached, they've got veteran players, they're very physical, they shoot the ball well and they're as good as any team here," commented Boeheim about Isreal, the USA's next opponent.
