Meier Led Team USA Cruises Past Spain
LANZAROTE, Canary Islands – Leading from wire-to-wire, the 2013 USA U19 Women’s U19 World Championship Team (2-0) upended host Spain (0-2) 78-49 in the 2013 Lanzarote International Invitational on Saturday night at the Teguise Arena in Lanzarote, Canary Islands. Seven U.S. players chipped in no less than six points apiece, led by Linnae Harper (Whitney Young H.S. / Chicago, Ill.) and Bashaara Graves (Tennessee / Clarksville, Tenn.), who notched 15 and 10 points, respectively.
In the night’s early game, Australia (1-1) defeated Canada (1-1) 72-65.
The round-robin tournament concludes on Sunday with the Americans going against Canada at 11:00 a.m. (6:00 a.m. EDT) and the Australia-Spain contest tips at 1:00 p.m. (8:00 a.m. EDT).
“I thought that was a great response by our team to understand the level of effort that we have to give every night,” said USA U19 and University of Miami head coach Katie Meier. “Spain had our attention; they had our full attention. We expected a real emotional, passionate performance by them and they started out that way. It was a great response by our team.”
Coming out with more energy overall than it did against Australia last night, the USA jumped out to an early lead it would never relinquish. Graves got the U.S. on the board 17 seconds into the game and by the 6:21 mark, with three more Americans contributing points, the USA was up 10-2.
However, the red, white and blue had a tough time adjusting to the international style of play and at 5:08 was whistled for its fifth team foul. Being in the bonus resulted the host nation hitting 9-of-10 in the second half of the stanza to keep the game within single digits and at the end of the period the USA led by nine, 23-14.
“I think Spain came out really hard and aggressive,” said Harper. “They saw us play last night and saw how we started. I think this game, the USA came out really hard. We wanted to prove ourselves and play better than we did yesterday, execute the things we needed to do and do the little things. Since we started from the beginning, playing hard and hustling, I think it made the game easier for us.”
Nia Coffey (Hopkins H.S. / Minneapolis, Minn.) got a quick and-one to start the second quarter. That sparked an 11-2 run that again saw four different players put up points, while the U.S. also got back-to-back steals by Harper and Moriah Jefferson (Connecticut / Glenn Heights, Texas). By 7:46 the USA’s lead had stretched to 34-16 and it looked as if the team was ready to pull away for good.
However, following a jumper by Spain, the USA sent the hosts to the line for six tries in less than a two-minute span and the Europeans closed the gap to 34-22 at 5:39. That was as close as Spain would get for the remainder of the contest. Holding onto a 15-point, 45-30, advantage, the Americans got a long two from Kelsey Plum (La Jolla Country Day / Poway, Calif.) at the buzzer and headed to the locker room up 47-30.
“The key to the game was the early foul trouble by our starters, which gave us significant minutes off of our bench,” added Meier, whose squad had six players with two fouls apiece by halftime. “We don’t really call it our bench; we call it our second wave, our reinforcements, because they just reinforced what the starters did. They played with a tremendous amount of poise and I was awfully pleased with that.
“As coaches we were allowed to manage minutes and we needed that. We’re trying to learn about the team. I was disappointed about the early foul trouble, but I thought the response to the early foul trouble was a real positive for the team.”
Ahead 49-34 with just under five minutes to play in the third quarter, the U.S. opened up the game with another 11-2 run to go up 61-36 and dash and any comeback hopes Spain might have been harboring. By the end of the third, the score stood at 63-38.
The Americans continued to increase their lead, going up by as many as 30 points, 77-47, before closing with the 78-49 win.
Points were spread around and including the contribution from Harper and Graves, the Americans received nine points and five boards from Alexis Jones (Duke / Irving, Texas), eight points apiece from Breanna Stewart(Connecticut / North Syracuse, N.Y.) and A’ja Wilson (Heathwood Hall H.S / Hopkins, S.C.), Brianna Turner(Manvel H.S. / Pearland, Texas) added seven points and pulled down a game-best nine caroms, while Candice Agee (Penn State / Victorville, Calif.) pitched in six points and five boards.
“Candice (Agee) played real well,” said Graves. “She stepped up a lot. She had a lot of hustle plays for her minutes. A’ja (Wilson) has been doing great. She did great last game, but I think everybody came out and had hustle plays on defense. I think that was the most important thing.”
Spain, which has five U19 World Championship-eligible athletes who are currently competing in the FIBA Europe U20 Championship, was led by Leticia Romero’s 13 points.
Shooting 49.2 percent from the field, the USA’s defense limited Spain to a frigid 27.9 percent overall. However, both teams struggled from beyond the arc as Spain hit for 13.3 percent and the U.S. just 7.7 percent (1-13 3pt FGs). The United States dominated on the glass 49-29 and dished out 14 assists on 31 field goals.
“I know that they like to push the ball,” commented Jones on Canada, the USA’s next opponent. “They’re a cutting team. They’re always cutting on the offense, so we really have to be prepared to bump and really be physical with Canada. We have to know that they’re going to come at us tomorrow, even though they lost today. We have to be prepared and come out and bring the energy like we did today.”
Four-time defending U19 world champs, the USA is using the mini-tournament to help prepare for 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship, hosted by Lithuania from July 18-28 in Klaipeda and Panave?ys.
Assisting Meier and the U19 squad are collegiate head coaches Nikki Caldwell of Louisiana State University and Kelly Graves of Gonzaga University.
The FIBA U19 Worlds will feature 16 teams with athletes 19-years-old or younger. Including host Lithuania and the USA, competing for U19 gold will be Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Japan, Mali, Netherlands, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, South Korea and Spain.
Drawn into Group D, the U.S. will play its preliminary and second round games in Panave?ys, and opens against Lithuania on July 18, followed by China on July 19 and caps the preliminary round against Mali on July 20.
The top three finishing teams from each first-round group will advance to the second round, held July 22-24. The 12 nations qualifying for the second round will be divided into Groups E and F. Each team will play the three new teams in its new group, with all results of games played in the preliminary round carrying over to determine the second-round standings.
Teams finishing in first through fourth places in the second round will qualify for the quarterfinals, with the opportunity to advance to the semifinals and finals. The medal round will be played in Klaipeda, with the quarterfinals held on July 26, semifinals slated for July 27 and the gold medal game on July 28.
