Written by Colin Whited
Before the United States Men’s Basketball Team took on Venezuela to begin their quest for an Under-21 World Championship, head coach Keith Westholeter had a message for his team.
“Stay focused, and don’t take [Venezuela] for granted.”
In the U.S.’s first dose of official competition at the 1st U-21 World Championships in Lublin, Poland, they took Westhoelter’s words to heart, outscoring the Venezuelans 26-8 in the second quarter en route to a 101-59 victory.
The final score, however, doesn’t indicate how close the game was in the beginning. The scrappy and quick-handed Venezuela squad used a full court press to force the Americans into early turnovers, jumping out to a 10-2 advantage in the first four minutes of the game. The first quarter ended with the Venezuelans up by two, 22-20.
“We were victimized by first-game jitters in the first quarter,” Westhoelter said. “Once we were able to settle down and start pushing the ball up the floor, good things started to happen.”
As soon as the U.S. was able to establish itself in the open court, they broke open the game. This in large part came as a result of an effective bench. One of the contributors off the bench was 6’4” forward Josh Sisco (Spartanburg, S.C.), who scored 14 points on 7-10 from the field to go along with five rebounds in only 11 minutes of action.
“When I came into the game, I was overcome by a sense of patriotism,” Sisco said after the game. “This made me say to myself, ‘I’ve got to take advantage of every minute I play for my country.’”
Using a balanced scoring attack and playing strong team defense, the Americans proved to be too much for Venezuela.
As a team, the Yanks were solid on both ends of the floor. They held Venezuela to 20-76 (26%) from the field and shot 42-76 (55%) for the game. They also out-rebounded the Venezuelans 63-31.
The only detractor was the fact that the U.S. turned the ball over 29 times, a statistic that Westhoelter called, “Unacceptable.”
“We have to take better care of the basketball,” he added.
The U.S. was led in scoring by forward Daniel Fava (Mt. Airy, Md.), who had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. 6’7” forward Tyler Crace (Fishers, Ind.) was solid off the bench, adding 14 points, hitting four treys. Forward Greg White also had a double-double and was a force on the glass, scoring 12 points to go along with 15 boards.
6’5” center Curtis Grice (Leavenworth, Kan.) took full advantage of the smaller Venezuelan lineup, scoring ten points and pulling down seven rebounds, five of them offensive, in only nine minutes of court time.
“I went onto the floor and just boxed out,” Grice said. “[Venezuela] wasn’t very tall, so I tried to take advantage of that as much as possible.”
The performances of Sisco, Crace, and Grice were an example of the strength of USA’s depth on the bench. Overall, the reserves were tremendous, contributing 55 points and 29 rebounds.
A factor that Westhoelter was extremely pleased to see was that all of his players received substantial playing time. No one played less than nine minutes.
“It’s a long tournament—the objective is to keep everyone fresh,” Westhoelter explained. “When have 11 players, all of whom are solid contributors, we are able to do just that.”
The win gives the United States a 1-0 record in their pool. Tomorrow they will resume pool play against Ukraine, a team that clobbered the United Kingdom by fifty points earlier today.
| SCORE BY QUARTER |
|
Q1 |
Q2 |
Q3 |
Q4 |
OT |
Total |
|
| USA |
20 |
26 |
20 |
35 |
0 |
101 |
|
| VENEZUELA |
22 |
6 |
19 |
10 |
0 |
59 |
USA - Fava 15, Crace 14, Sisco 14, White 12, McMillan 11, Grice 10, Nelson 9, Paulone 8, Wigley 8, Berrigan 0, Bonheyo 0.
Venezuela – Blanco 31, Palacios 12, Quintero 7, Rengifo 7, Noria 2, Gonzalez 0, Lopez 0, Martinez 0, Salazar 0, Suarez 0.
Copyright by USADB International
Chris Colwill (Brandon, Fla.) won national titles at the USA Diving Winter National Championships, securing his spot on the 2010 FINA World Cup Team.
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