July 23, 2000

USA Basketball Game Story & Box Score

Behind Jason Williams' (Duke / Plainfield, N.J.) team high 27 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field, the 2000 USA World Championship for Young Men Qualifying Team (4-0) held off host Brazil (2-2) 96-91 in front of a standing room only crowd on Saturday night in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil. Maryland's Steve Blake finished with two points and one rebound.

With the win, the USA is assured of a berth in the 2001 International Basketball Federation (FIBA) World Championship for Young Men, as the top three nations in the 2000 Confederation of Pan American Basketball Associations (COPABA) World Championship for Young Men Qualifying Tournament advance to next year's World Championship for Young Men, which will be held in Japan. The United States will face Argentina (3-1), 80-72 victors over the Dominican Republic (3-1) in tonight's other semifinal game, on July 23 at 7:00 p.m. (local), while host Brazil and the Dominican Republic will play at 5:00 p.m. (local) for the bronze medal and the final World Championship for Young Men Americas Zone berth.

"There's nothing harder than to play a team on its home court," said USA and Syracuse University (N.Y.) head coach Jim Boeheim. "The fans know that they want to get a medal and they know that if they beat us, they get a medal and go to Tokyo next year for the World Championship (for Young Men). We took their best shot, they came at us and we played as well as we could play on offense, we made 9-of-16 from the three. Jason Williams and Jason Richardson (Michigan State / Saginaw, Mich.) just had monstrous games for us and it was a fight right to the end, just like in the Argentina game. Now we have to go out tomorrow night and play Argentina again and do the same thing."

With 1:08 remaining in the contest, the United States held a slim five-point margin, 93-88. In an effort to stop the clock, Brazil picked up its fifth and sixth fouls of the second half, but after the sixth the United States tossed the ball away its inbounds play. Brazil missed two shots as the clock ran down, but grabbed the rebounds and got a basket to pull to within three points, 93-90, with 23.9 seconds to go.

On the USA's inbounds pass, Tayshaun Prince (Kentucky / Compton, Calif.) ran the length of the court and was intentionally fouled by a Brazilian defender. A fan behind the basket shoved Prince as he attempted to pick himself up, which caused members of the U.S. bench to enter the court and the bench was whistled for a technical foul, which cancelled out the intentional foul. No free throws were awarded to either team and instead, the referee called for a jump ball situation. Richardson won the jump, tapped the ball to Williams, who was almost immediately fouled and as it was Brazil's eighth of the half, Williams was sent to the line. After Williams made the second of two attempts to put the U.S. up by four, 94-90, Nick Collison (Kansas / Iowa Falls, Iowa) picked up his fifth foul of the game as Brazil's Jefferson Sobral was trying to shoot a three with 11.1 seconds remaining. Sobral, who finished the game shooting 8-of-11 from the line, had a chance to pull his squad within a point, but made only one of his three attempts. Kenny Satterfield (Cincinnati / Bronx, N.Y.) scored the USA's final two points of the game from the line with 2.9 seconds to go as the USA advanced to the gold medal contest with the 96-91 victory.

"It was a very physical game, they came out at us hard," said Williams, who also dished out a team leading seven assists. "They definitely had the home court advantage. The fans were into it, the fans were taunting us. It seems like when we play against these teams, they make all the shots that they don't normally make. But that's what happens when you're playing for the U.S. Everybody is gunning for us, we have to expect that and come out and play harder. We look forward to playing Argentina, it should be a great game tomorrow."

Neither team was able to gain momentum in the first half as the score see-sawed with nobody holding more than a five point lead, and at the midway buzzer Brazil was on top 50-45. The second half started much as the first, with five knotted scores and nine lead changes and with 12:01 to go, the game was locked up at 67-67 after Sobral scored two points. Williams hit a jumper nine seconds later to give the United States a 69-67 lead, one that it would never relinquish.

In addition to Williams' game high 27 points, the USA's effort was further aided by 17 points from Richardson, Michigan State University freshman-to-be Zach Randolph (Marion H.S. / Marion, Ind.) scored 16 to go with his game high eight rebounds, and Drew Gooden (Kansas / Richmond, Calif.) checked in for 10 points.

Alex Garcia paced Brazil with 22 points, Guilhermo Giovanni had 19, Sobral finished with 16 and Tiago de Lima scored 10 points.

The USA shot a stellar 51.4 percent (36-70 FGs) from the field and an even better 56.3 percent (9-16 3pt FGs) from three-point, while Brazil shot 48.4 percent (30-62 FGs) from the field and just 30.4 percent (7-23 3pt FGs) from afar. The United States out rebounded Brazil 34-25 and both teams committed an even 12 turnovers.

"My teammates did a great job of being around me," added Williams on his play tonight. "They made some great plays too. Tayshaun (Prince) made that dunk, Jason Richardson played his butt off today. We played great basketball and I think that's why we won today."

"These kids played hard these last two games," continued Boeheim. "We had two games that could have gotten away from us, but we made some great plays at the end defensively and offensively and we hung on to win. It's tough coming down here and playing these teams in their home countries. This was a great effort, a great, great win tonight. We battled back from a lot of adversity the whole game and I'm very proud of the way these kids played tonight. We came here with two goals. We wanted to get a medal and make sure we're qualified for the World Championship (for Young Men) and we've done that. Now the second goal is to win the gold, that's what we came here for."

University of Arkansas standout Joe Johnson (Little Rock, Ark.) sprained his left ankle in the USA's July 18 practice and is listed as day-to-day.

Rounding out Boeheim's coaching staff are recently named University of Houston (Texas) head coach Ray McCallum and Hofstra University (N.Y.) head coach Jay Wright.

In consolation play, Canada (1-3) earned its first win with an 87-79 victory over Panama (1-3), while Puerto Rico (2-2) defeated Uruguay (0-4) 76-69. Canada and Puerto Rico will face each other in the fifth place game at 3:00 p.m. (local) on July 23, and Panama will take on Uruguay to determine the seventh place finish at 1:00 p.m. (local).