It was the last day of rest at the U19 World Championships before three straight games to close out the weekend. Here are the links for Friday's quarterfinals:
Angela and Spain vs Belgium, 8:45am EDT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WTphkQEJDc
Azura and the United States vs Canada, 1:15pm EDT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYup2UsTvyQ
In the Pan American Games, the United States and Brazil were playing for the top spot in the group knowing which place would lead to which semifinal opponent and the Americans fell behind before losing 93-83. The veterans had solid games again as Keith Langford had 17 points, Bobby Brown had 16 points, and Anthony Randolph had 15 points while Taurean Prince led the collegiate contingent with 16 points. J.P. Batista had 13 points in the win against his former college coach.
Boxscore:
http://results.toronto2015.org/IRS/e...s-men-a-06.htm
In the other game in the group, Rick Pitino got his first win with Puerto Rico as they beat Venezuela 89-72. In the win, J.J. Barea was finally able to do his thing as he led the team with 27 points and 6 rebounds, ex-Oregon State player Devon Collier had 21 points, and ex-USC player Larry Ayuso and ex-Kansas player Kevin Young had 10 points each. In the loss, ex-USC player Dwight Lewis had 19 points, ex-NAIA player Nestor Colmenares had 17 points and 8 rebounds, and ex-USF player John Cox had 17 points.
Boxscore:
http://results.toronto2015.org/IRS/e...s-men-a-05.htm
Standings: Brazil 3-0, United States 2-1, Puerto Rico 1-2, Venezuela 0-3
In the other group, Argentina beat the Dominican Republic 80-70 as Patricio Garino of George Washington had 13 points and 7 rebounds. In the loss, ex-UNC Greensboro player James Maye had 19 points and ex-Albany player Gerardo Suero had 15 points. The hosts took the top spot in the group by beating Mexico 96-76 to send the rest of the teams into a tiebreaker. Ex-Baylor player Brady Heslip continues to be the sharpshooter as he had 20 points, young Jamal Murray impressed again with 14 points, and the NBA players chipped in as Andrew Nicholson had 11 points and 10 rebounds and Anthony Bennett had 10 points and 8 rebounds. In the loss, ex-Western Kentucky player Orlando Mendez-Valdez had 24 points, ex-Wyoming player Francisco Cruz had 14 points, and ex-Grand Canyon player Marco Ramos had 10 points.
Boxscores:
http://results.toronto2015.org/IRS/e...s-men-b-05.htm
http://results.toronto2015.org/IRS/e...s-men-b-06.htm
Standings: Canada 3-0, Dominican Republic 1-2, Argentina 1-2, Mexico 1-2
Here is Friday's schedule (times EDT, all live on ESPN3):
Semifinals:
Brazil vs Dominican Republic, 1:30pm
United States vs Canada, 6:00pm
5th Place:
Puerto Rico vs Argentina, 9:00pm
7th Place:
Venezuela vs Mexico,10:30am
The busy European youth calendar each summer continued with the start of the two U18 Men's Championships. There is actually a Division C at the U18 level, which was played in Gibraltar earlier in the month, but teams there do not automatically move between divisions. Three teams will move from Division A to Division B and vice versa in 2016 after the results of this tournament. Division A is being played in Volos, Greece this year as sixteen teams look to win or at least survive for another summer. Twenty four teams are contesting Division B's title in three locations in Austria, Oberwart, Gussing, and Furstenfeld. Each competition starts with four groups for round robin play. As with many other competitions, Division A will be mostly shown on FIBA's YouTube channel. One interesting note to some people might be the fact that below the U20 level, the component parts of the United Kingdom compete separately instead of as a unified British team, which I still think is a silly idea here. Another interesting story is T.J. Leaf, who opted to suit up for Israel after being rejected for the United States U19 team. His teammates include the son of David Blatt.