2012 FIBA Americas U-18 Tournament

[NorCal]

Yeah really, but just when Wiggins, Lyles, Ennis and few others are in, otherwise it's an ordinary team, see the 2nd half with Puerto Rico.
Trey Lyles had 17pts+16reb in the win tonight (77-51).

Agreed. If we meet them in the medal round I think that would be our advantage as their starters are as talented as ours.

[Jokinen]

Brasil defeated Mexico 79-69 and Argentina 80-45 Colombia. Gabriel Deck posted 18 pts and 7 rbs in 13 min for Argentina. That kid will also be playing the U17 World Championship in a couple of weeks.

[carlo]

Good game for Argentina but needs to face tougher competitors. And, after US Shaq Goodwin, Gabriel Deck had another perfect 100% scoring!
After a nightmarish first period Brazil took the game but wasn't that impressive. Mexico imo really exciting in the first 20'.

[tmlouk]

any thoughts about tonights game - Canada vs Colombia?
Colombia which a huge defeat last night.
No question that canada will win, but will colombia get trashed in the same way again - by 40,50points?

[carlo]

Probably yes, I don't know Colombian players but imo it would be a miracle for them to stay in the game.
In the meantime, end of Q1 USA 32 - Mexico 12, American playing good defense so far.

[tmlouk]

i don`t understand, why colombia is so weak, although they are playing with the same roster from last years u17 south american championchips, where they f.e lost to ARG only by 7 points and have reached the 3rd place

[carlo]

USA leading Mexico 58-26 at halftime.

[carlo]

USA 110 - Mexico 59. Excellent team play by the American boys, who played good defense, had an accurate balanced attack (over 50% from the field) with all players scoring, led by a surprising Jake Layman (18) who shot some fine threes in Q4. And Harrel was 6/6.

[Jokinen]

i don`t understand, why colombia is so weak, although they are playing with the same roster from last years u17 south american championchips, where they f.e lost to ARG only by 7 points and have reached the 3rd place

They have size but they really struggled to get the ball up and couldn´t stop the faster Argentinian players. Also they are all forwards, only a couple of guards an then all forwards and centers.

[Jokinen]

Argentina defeated Puerto Rico 76-65 with 20 pts 5 rbs from Bernardini and 18 pts 8 rbs from Gabriel Deck. So Argentina already got his ticket to the U19 World championship, if i´m not mistaken. And the winner of Argentina Canada (if Canada beats Colombia) will win the group and avoid USA in the semifinals.

[carlo]

Yes, the top 4 finishing teams qualify for the 2013 World's.
In tonight's game Argentina struggled a lot in the 1st half, while was definitely better after the intermission.

[Jokinen]

It seems that Canada really struggled to defeat Colombia. USA, Brasil, Canada and Argentina are going to play the U19 WC 2013. I wonder what would Argentina do with Gabriel Deck and Rodrigo Haag. I mean this two kids have to play the U17 WC in a few days. ¿Will they play the rest of this U18 Fiba Americas? Any injury will very likely leave them out of the U17 WC. But without them Argentina will probably loose the two games left.

[carlo]

Argentina surely has some excellent players, is disciplined as a team and can have some good chances against Canada.
It would imo be strange that some Argentinian boys leave to join the U17 team, that is currently training in Spain (plays game2 this evening). Also considering that in three days the U18 tournament is over.

[carlo]

Canada +5 at halftime, but the game is still open. Wiggins, Lyles and Ennis are the best for Canadian boys (awesome penetration+dunk by Wiggins less than 1' to go). Torres, Massone, Bernardini for Argentina.
Lyles suffered a concussion in Q1 and was less brilliant afterwards.

[carlo]

Canada-Argentina 75-68, in a hard fought game. Canadians always leading but Argentinian boys never gave up. Wiggins 19, Lyles 16+12reb, Ennis 14, Rathan-Mayes 12. Massone 19, Bernardini 13 and Barral 10+5ast.