Grant, Team USA Open Championship
6/17/2012 7:48:47 AM | Men's Basketball
SAO SEBASTIÁO DOS PARAISO, Brazil -- Incoming Syracuse freshman Jerami Grant (DeMatha Catholic H.S./Bowie, Md.) and the USA Men's U18 Team opened the 2012 FIBA Americas Championship preliminary play saturday by defeating the U.S. Virgin Islands, 105-42.
Shaq Goodwin's (Southwest DeKalb H.S./Decatur, Ga.) had a game-high 30 points. Grant, who started the game, finished with four points and five rebounds in 18 minutes of work.
“I thought we got much better in the second half. I thought we took advantage of our frontcourt players,” said USA and University of Florida head coach Billy Donovan. “In the first half we turned it over a little too much, but we did a great job getting to the free throw line, we went to the free throw line 33 times in the first half. The problem was we only converted 16-of-33, we left a lot of points out there. But I thought as the game started to unfold we did a better job of recognizing that we had a huge advantage up front and I thought Shaq Goodwin, Jarnell Stokes, Montrezl (Harrell), all those guys did a nice job finishing around the basket.”
Goodwin's 30-point outpouring was the third highest single game scoring effort in USA Basketball U18 Championship history. His 12-12 shooting set a U.S. mark for highest field goal percentage in a U18 game.
“I think the chemistry really just built up towards the second half. I knew our guards we're going to push it so I basically just had to run the floor and they put me in the best position to score,” said Goodwin. “I've never had a game like that before and I didn't realize (perfect shooting) it (tonight). I was just playing basketball, I don't know, I was just at the right place at the right time.”
Eight teams are competing in the 2012 U18 Americas zone qualifier, including the USA, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Columbia, Mexico, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands. The top four finishing teams in the tournament will qualify for next summer's 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship.
The USA continues preliminary round against Mexico on Sunday (1 p.m. EDT), then finishes off Group A preliminary round action against host Brazil on June 18 (5 p.m. EDT). The top two teams from Group A and Group B will advance to play for 1st-4th place, while the No. 3 and No. 4 ranked teams play out for 5th-8th place. The semifinals will be played on June 19, and the final round games will be contested on June 20.
In the hunt for a sixth gold medal, USA men's teams are 38-2 overall in the FIBA Americas U18 Championship (formerly known as the Junior World Championship Qualifier), and have captured gold in 1990, 1994, 1998, 2006 and 2010, while winning a silver in 2008 and a bronze medal in 2002.
Serving as USA assistant coaches are Gonzaga head coach Mark Few and Shaka Smart from Virginia Commonwealth.
