BAHIA BLANCA, Argentina — Fighting back from a 20-point second quarter deficit, the USA Basketball Men’s U16 National Team defeated Canada 77-60 to earn the FIBA Americas Championship gold medal on Sunday night.
The gold medal marked the fourth gold in as many editions of the U16 tournament. The USA is 20-0 in U16 play since the biennial tournament launched in 2009.
Gary Trent Jr. (Apple Valley High School/Apple Valley, Minnesota) scored all 19 points of his points in the second half and earned tournament MVP honors. Jarred Vanderbilt (Victory Prep School/Houston, Texas) added 19 points and 10 rebounds. Wendell Carter Jr. (Pace Academy/Fairburn, Georgia) had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Tre Jones (Apple Valley High /Apple Valley, Minnesota) had five steals and finished the tournament with a USA U16 competition record 19 steals, breaking Malik Newman’s record of 14 set in 2013.
Columbus High rising sophomore Robert Woodard II had two points and one rebound in four minutes in the title game. He averaged 5.6 points and 3.8 rebounds in 12.8 minutes per game in the five-game tournament. He was 10-for-22 from the field (45.5 percent).
Also setting USA U16 competition records were Jalen Hill (Corona Centennial High/Corona, California), who shots 88.2 percent from the field (15-for-17) to surpass the record of 71.1 percent set by Jahlil Okafor in 2011. Markus Howard (Findlay Prep, Nevada/Chandler, Arizona) shot 48.4 percent from 3-point range (15-for-31) to set a new mark for USA 3-point percentage, formerly owned by Adonis Thomas, who shot 46.2 percent in 2009.
“I think in the first half we were a little too loose with the basketball and had some turnovers,” said USA coach Don Showalter, who is 43-0 and has led U.S. teams to seven gold medals since 2009 as coach of the USA Junior National Team (U16 and U17). “We weren’t very aggressive on the boards. They pretty much dominated us on the boards in the first half. And when you play like that, your shooting percentage isn’t very good. You’re only getting one shot and they were making their shots that first quarter. It kind of woke our players up a little bit. As the game went on we showed what we’re really made of.
“I give Canada a lot of credit. They had a great game plan. They weren’t going to let us get a lot of second shots. They were going to make us take shots we really didn’t want to take.”
The silver medal marked Canada’s best finish at the event. It won bronze medals in 2009, 2011, and 2013.
Argentina (3-2), which won silver medals in the past three events, finished with the bronze medal after defeating Dominican Republic 74-59.
Looking at a 20-point deficit early in the second quarter, the USA spent the remainder of the first half and the third quarter fighting its way back.
Trailing 51-49 entering the fourth quarter, the USA evened the score early on a Carter putback, but Canada took a 56-51 lead in the next 40 seconds. That’s when the tide finally turned.
After Carter missed completing a three-point play, Vanderbilt was there for the rebound and score to cut the deficit to 56-51 with 8 minutes, 25 seconds remaining.
The USA prevented Canada from scoring on four possessions and forced a turnover, while Hill scored on a dunk and a 3-pointer by Kevin Knox II (Tampa Catholic H.S./Tampa, Florida) gave the USA its largest lead, 60-56, with 5:49 to play.
“Gary (Trent) hit a couple threes that were really big, and Kevin Knox hit a big three,” Showalter said. “I think we were up one and Kevin put us up 60-56. Sometimes players have to step up and make some great plays. We ran a couple sets for Gary to get hot and fortunately he did.
“Gary is a real focused player. He really focuses in on what to do, not only what to do, but how the other team is playing him. He adjusts his game according to how the other team is playing him. He missed a couple big threes in the first half and missed some in the third quarter, but I told him to keep shooting it. He’s a great shooter and they’re going to fall for him.”
Canada’s remaining four points came from the line, while the USA received 10 points from Trent and six from Vanderbilt to secure the victory.
“It was a tough game,” Vanderbilt said. “We were down by 20, but we stuck together. That was our first time really facing adversity and for us to stay together and stick it out to the end really shows how good we are as a team, the brotherhood, the chemistry that we have.”
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