Anthony's 21 Helps USA Beat Puerto Rico, 111-100
8/19/2006 8:48:32 AM | Men's Basketball
by USA Basketball
SAPPORO, Japan -- On an afternoon when the USA's shooting was off its mark in the game's early minutes, former Syracuse standout Carmelo Anthony (Denver Nuggets) overcame early foul trouble to spark the offense and finished with a team high 21 points as the U.S. (1-0) earned a 111-100 victory over Puerto Rico (0-1) Saturday in opening day preliminary group action of the 2006 FIBA World Championship in Sapporo, Japan.
The USA's offensive showing, in addition to Anthony's 21 points, was powered by 15 points from Kirk Hinrich (Chicago Bulls) and LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers), 13 points from Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat), Chris Paul (New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets) was credited with 11 points and game bests of nine assists and five steals, while Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic) posted 10 points and a U.S. high seven rebounds.
The USA continues World Championship preliminary play Sunday facing Yoa Ming and his China team. The USA earned a 119-73 win over China in an Aug. 7 exhibition game in Guangzhou, China, a game in which Ming did not play. China plays Italy in the day's final preliminary round Group D game.
"I thought our guys did a good job of adjusting and once we got good leads we never lost control of the game. But Puerto Rico never quit and that's to their credit, so we earned a hard fought win," stated U.S. head coach Mike Krzyzewski, whose USA Basketball coaching staff includes SU mentor Jim Boeheim. "I think we played defense in spurts, but that had a lot to do with the fact that Puerto Rico had a number of good ball handlers in the game."
With Puerto Rico's 92-73 victory over the USA in the opening game of the 2004 Olympics (Aug. 15, 2004), still fresh in the USA players' and coaches' minds, the U.S. was not taking Puerto Rico lightly.
"I think overall it was just good to get out of the gate. We wanted to go out and play for real," said Hinrich, whose 15 points came in 17 minutes of action. "We played in spurts and we're going to have to play a lot better obviously as the tournament moves forward if we want to achieve what we want to achieve."
The USA fell behind 12-7, but after James scored on back-to-back possessions to ignite a 10-0 run, the Americans moved out to a 17-12 lead. With the U.S. ahead 23-19, Puerto Rico scored the final five points of the opening quarter's final 1:12 to take a 24-23 lead after one period.
"I think from the second quarter on, our defense was good. The first quarter we gave them too many points. We let them score, we let them into the middle of the court a lot, but we sat down at the end of the first quarter and said if we wanted to win we were going to have to do it on the defensive end," said Anthony.
With 6:24 to play in the second quarter and Puerto Rico up 36-32, Anthony took center stage. Hitting a 3-ball, he added a pair of other baskets to account for seven points as the U.S. outscored the islanders 14-5 and grabbed a 46-41 lead with 3:38 to go before halftime.
Joe Johnson (Atlanta Hawks) connected on a pair of 3-pointers over the second quarter's final 1:30 and at halftime the Americas had inched out to 57-51 advantage.
The U.S. came out of the locker room for the third quarter flying and after outscoring Puerto Rico 14-5 during the third quarter's first 3:07 the U.S. had expanded its lead to 71-56.
Leading 87-74 after 30 minutes of action, the U.S. opened the fourth quarter in dominating fashion. The U.S. threatened to make the contest a rout after scoring the first nine points to balloon the lead to a 22-point advantage, 96-74, with 8:06 left in the game. Puerto Rico fought back, cutting the deficit to 100-88 with 4:26 remaining.
Hinrich helped closed the door on the win when he drained his third 3-pointer of the day with 3:41 showing on the clock and the U.S. rolled on for the victory.
The USA, which outrebounded Puerto Rico 34-23, 16-to-7 on the offensive end, after a cold start shot 54.2 percent from the field for the game, but hit just 9-of-27 from beyond the 3-point arc. Puerto Rico made 10-of-16 3-pointers and managed to make 54.3 percent of its shots.
The top four finishing teams from each preliminary group will qualify for the Eighth-Finals. Winners of the Eighth-Finals games will advance to the quarterfinals, while losers are eliminated from the competition. Winners of the quarterfinals games will advance to the medal round semifinals, while the quarterfinals losers will play in the consolation round semifinals and play out for fifth-eighth places. Winners of the medal round semifinals will advance to the gold medal game, while medal round semifinals losers will meet in the bronze medal game. All games from the Eighth-Finals to the Finals will be played on a one-game elimination basis for the gold medal. The games from the Eighth-Finals to the Finals will be played Aug. 26-Sept. 3 in Saitama City, Saitama, Japan.
