European Prospects

Today have been played the Quarter-Finals of the first ever U17 World Championship in Hamburg. In front of about 20 College and NBA scouts, 4 teams qualified for the semi-finals to be played on Saturday. The first two games featured only non-European teams, so let’s go for a review of their respective quarter-finals.

Canada – China

The Canadian team took an early lead behind the three point shooting of Anthony Bennett and Negus Webster-Chan who knocked down 4 long distance shots in the first 7 minutes. Additionally, the team from Northern America dominated the boards with their athletic players. But after a time-out, China increased its defensive pressure and had a few steals to shorten the lead with the drives of Hanchen Luo. Canada up 8 after 10 minutes. China remained in the game during the beginning of the 2nd quarter through the aggressive play of Ailun Guo who split the Canadian defense several times. On the other hand, Olivier Hanlan nailed three three-pointers coming of the bench to bring back and even increase the 10pt lead for Canada. With this confidence boost but Kevin Pangos on the bench because of foul trouble, the team of coach Roy Rana tried some spectacular plays that were however not working. China used this and scored a three pointer on the buzzer to cut the deficit back to 8 at halftime.

In the beginning of the second half, Xiaochuan Zhai cut the lead even to 5 with a nice three point shot and Canada started to struggle a bit. This was the beginning of the teams trading baskets but two steals and fast-break dunks gave Canada a bigger lead again with 5 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter.But China did not give up and scored several baskets in the paint with the foul but Hanlan continued his shooting with another shot on the buzzer to be 4/5 from behind the arc. Canada up 11 with 10 minutes to go. In the last quarter, Canada started strong with Anthony Bennett dominating the paint and Kevin Pangos hitting the shots. China tried a last spurt with 3 minutes to go and came back to 8 but several bad offensive choices prevented them to get closer. Kevin Pangos lost though an easy ball and China cut the lead to 6 with 1min30 to go. Hanchen Luo scored the layup and netted the three and the score was 98-94 at the 1 minute mark. But Anthony Bennett took his responsibilities with a score on the offensive rebound and another board on the defensive end followed by a score from the FT line. Game Over, Canada advanced to the semi-finals.

MVP: Anthony Bennett 29pts (7/9 2FGs 4/7 3FGs) 14rebs 4stls 3blks

USA – Australia

The game started with a nice dunk for Australia by Owen Odigie but the USA immediately scored back and took over the lead behind two scores in the paint by James McAdoo. The Aussies let some points on the line (1/8 FTs in the first 5 minutes) to stay close so that the American team could increase their lead to 8 after just 5 minutes. USA continued their impressive run based on excellent defensive presence in the passing lanes with a 14-0 but Australia came back into the game with some points in the paint and from the Free-Throw line. However Michael Gilchrist stopped this short spurt with an impressive dunk on the drive.USA was up 12 at the end of the 1st quarter. McAdoo continued to impress in the paint with his rebounding, scoring and shot blocking presence but the advantage of the Americans remained around 12 points. Daniel Hill paced the game for the Australian team while McAdoo was still perfect at 7/7 shots. The changing defenses of the Americans put the Aussies sometimes in trouble bringing up the ball but with their shots falling from behind the arc (James Dyson at 3/3) and the FT line, Australia remained at –10 despite the physical dominance of the US guys. Bradley Beal hit his attempts from behind the arc as well and helped the US team to stay out of reach at +13 with 2 minutes to go in the first half. And Beal made another long-distance shot and USA lead 52-36 at the half.

Beal continued to score from behind the arc (6/7) and helped the US to increase the lead quickly to more than 20 points. Australia did not stop to fight for every possession but the United States had the game in their hands and they did not look like they wanted to throw it away. The game was now nothing more than just waiting for the time running down as the Americans increased their lead to 83-46 with 1min22 to go in the third quarter. With the reserve players on the court for Team USA at the beginning of the 4th quarter, the Aussies could get some baskets but the game was already over as the United States were up more than 40 points. Marquis Teague scored the 100th point for the Americans with 3 minutes on the clock. Australia used the last offenses to cut the lead a bit and bring it back to the end score 105-70.

MVP: Bradley Beal 25pts (7/9 3FGs) 3rebs 1stl 1blk 22mins