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[FONT=Arial][SIZE=2][B][B][COLOR=#002B54][FONT=”Helvetica”][COLOR=#000000]SHENZHEN, CHINA[/COLOR][/FONT][/COLOR][/B][COLOR=#000000] (Aug. 17, 2011)[/COLOR][/B][/SIZE][COLOR=#000000][SIZE=2] – After a first-quarter fight from Finland (2-2), the 2011 USA Men’s World University Games Team (4-0) went on to easily secure a 124-64 win and the No. 1 seed out of Group D in the 2011 World University Games on Aug. 17 at the Universiade Main Gym in Shenzhen, China.[/SIZE][/COLOR][/FONT]
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Led by 21 points from [B]JaMychal Green[/B] (Alabama/Montgomery, Ala.), who grabbed five offensive boards and shot 6-of-7 from the field and 8-of-10 from the free throw line, the USA collected 22 offensive rebounds overall on its way to a 47-27 advantage on the glass.
“We came out with a lot of energy,” said USA and Purdue University head mentor [B]Matt Painter[/B]. “We mixed up the line up a little bit tonight and swapped our point guards, Scoop (Jardine) and Ashton (Gibbs), just to get a different look and see how our guys would respond to it, and both groups played well. I thought our guys had a great effort on the glass, especially on free throws. Even though you don’t want to miss your free throws, we did a great job of attacking the glass and getting second-chance opportunities.”
The USA, which has cruised uncontested through its first four games, will wrap up preliminary round pool play against Israel at 3:30 p.m. (all times listed are China Standard Time, which is +12 hours from Eastern Time) on Aug. 18. The top two finishing teams from each pool will advance to the medal quarterfinals, which will be contested on Aug. 20. The semifinals are scheduled for Aug. 21, and the finals will be played on Aug. 22.
[B]Trevor Mbakwe[/B] (Minnesota/ St. Paul, Minn.) added fourteen points and six rebounds, [B]Ashton Gibbs[/B] (Pittsburgh/Scotch Plains, N.J.) finished with 13 points and three assists, [B]John Jenkins[/B] (Vanderbilt/ Hendersonville, Tenn.) was 3-of-4 from 3-point and tallied 12 points and [B]Marcus Denmon[/B] (Missouri/Kansas City, Mo.), who was perfect from the field (3-3 FGs) and the charity stripe (3-3 FTs), rounded out the USA’s double-digit scorers with 10 points. As they have in all of the USA’s four contests, all 12 U.S. players put points on the board.
“I think we played well today,” JaMychal Green said. “We did a good job on the defensive end and a great job on the offensive end. We played better help defense and took pride in guarding our own players. Coach (Painter) always preaches that we need to crash the boards, and we did that today.”
Finland came out fighting and managed to take the lead from the USA three times in the first four minutes. A three-point play from Denmon at 5:54, however, tied the score 11-11 and was the start of a 9-0 spurt that put the USA ahead for the remainder of the game. Finland cut it to two points at 2:26, 18-16, but that was as close as they would get. Five points from [B]Orlando Johnson[/B] (UC Santa Barbara/Seaside, Calif.) were followed by scores from [B]Ray McCallum[/B] (Detroit Mercy/Beverly Hills, Mich.) and Jenkins, and by the time McCallum just beat the first quarter buzzer with a 3-pointer, the red, white and blue led by 12 points, 31-19.
“Before the game in film today, coach Stevens really stressed coming out strong from the get-go, being focused and playing hard,” McCallum said. “I thought that was what we did, and our walk-through this morning carried over to the game today. Everyone came out focused, played well together as a team and played good defense, and we got the job done.”
OFFICIAL BASKETBALL BOX SCORE — G A M E T O T A L S
USA Men’s WUGs vs Finland Men’s WUGs
08/17/11 6:00 p.m. at Universiade Main Gym
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VISITORS: USA Men’s WUGs (4-0)
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
No. N A M E FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
04 GIBBS, Ashton * 5-8 0-0 3-4 1 2 3 0 13 3 1 0 1 18
06 DENMON, Marcus * 3-3 1-1 3-3 0 1 1 0 10 3 0 0 1 18
10 GREEN, Draymond * 2-8 1-4 1-2 5 4 9 1 6 2 2 0 1 19
11 ABROMAITIS, Tim * 3-7 1-4 2-2 0 2 2 2 9 0 2 0 0 19
14 GREEN, JaMychal * 6-7 1-1 8-10 5 1 6 1 21 1 2 0 0 15
05 McCALLUM, Ray 3-5 1-1 2-2 1 1 2 0 9 2 0 0 0 15
07 JENKINS, John 5-11 2-7 0-0 0 0 0 1 12 3 1 0 1 16
08 JARDINE, Scoop 2-3 0-0 2-3 1 2 3 0 6 2 3 0 0 15
09 JOHNSON, Orlando 3-4 1-1 2-2 2 2 4 1 9 3 0 0 1 18
[B]12 MILLER, Darius 3-6 1-2 1-2 3 3 6 3 8 2 0 0 4 17
[/B]13 MANGANO, Greg 3-5 0-1 1-4 1 2 3 2 7 0 1 2 2 14
15 MBAKWE, Trevor 5-8 0-0 4-7 3 3 6 1 14 0 0 2 0 16
TEAM …………………………………. 0 2 2
TOTALS 43-75 9-22 29-41 22 25 47 12 124 21 12 4 11 200
TOT-FG 1stH: 0-0 00.0% 2ndH: 43-75 57.3% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 57.3% Deadbl
3pt-FG 1stH: 0-0 00.0% 2ndH: 9-22 40.9% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 40.9% Rebs
FThrow 1stH: 0-0 00.0% 2ndH: 29-41 70.7% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 70.7% 0
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HOME TEAM: Finland Men’s WUGs (2-2)
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
No. N A M E FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
04 NIEMI, Jesse Jaakko * 1-3 0-2 0-0 0 3 3 5 2 1 2 0 0 16
07 KANERVO, Anti * 8-13 1-4 3-4 2 1 3 4 20 2 2 0 1 21
09 NIKKARINEN, Antto * 1-4 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 4 2 2 5 1 0 22
11 NUUTINEN, Matti * 4-7 0-3 1-2 1 1 2 3 9 0 2 0 0 18
12 HEINONEN, Petri * 0-2 0-0 0-0 2 2 4 3 0 0 0 0 0 16
05 POUNDS, Michael 0-3 0-0 2-2 0 0 0 2 2 2 3 0 1 15
06 AHONEN, Roope 4-9 2-4 0-0 2 0 2 0 10 1 2 0 0 18
08 OJALA, Matias 1-5 1-4 0-0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0 0 15
10 TOIVONEN, Lauri 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 1 13
13 NENONEN, Juho 3-10 1-5 0-2 1 1 2 2 7 1 2 0 1 14
14 LINDBOM, Carl 4-10 1-3 0-0 3 1 4 1 9 1 0 0 0 17
15 VANTTAJA, Jouni 0-3 0-3 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 15
TEAM …………………………………. 3 1 4
TOTALS 26-70 6-29 6-10 14 13 27 30 64 10 20 1 4 200
TOT-FG 1stH: 0-0 00.0% 2ndH: 26-70 37.1% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 37.1% Deadbl
3pt-FG 1stH: 0-0 00.0% 2ndH: 6-29 20.7% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 20.7% Rebs
FThrow 1stH: 0-0 00.0% 2ndH: 6-10 60.0% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 60.0% 0
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OFFICIALS: Dodds, C. (SCO), Arisawa, S. (JPN), du Xiyuan (CHN)
TECHNICAL FOULS:
USA Men’s WUGs – none
Finland Men’s WUGs – none
ATTENDANCE:
SCORE BY PERIODS: 1st 2nd 3rd 4th OT1 OT2 TOTAL
USA Men’s WUGs 31 32 37 24 124
Finland Men’s WUGs 19 19 13 13 64
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