The final hurdle for the United States en route to a third consecutive gold medal at the FIBA U17 World Championship was indicative of how much more challenging the road was this time around.
The 99-92 win by the Americans is the closest margin of victory for the US in the three tournaments, and though Australia didn’t win by one at the buzzer like their coach Mark Watkins dreamt, the Boomers forced the US to beat out a strong opponent for the hardware at Hamdan Sports Complex last night.
The US finished the tournament with a perfect 7-0 record but the rematch of the 2012 final was a different story than the 95-62 thrashing the Americans dealt Australia in the previous event.
“You fight through things and you know the other team is going to make runs at you,” said US coach Don Showalter. “It makes it more of a gold medal game and this is what a gold medal game should be. It should be a close game until the very end, and fortunately we came out on top and this is what we came here to do.”
American point guard and captain Malik Newman added: “Anytime you can win gold and especially bring it back to the United States, that’s always a good feeling. For the tournament to be so tough and for the guys to pull together, for us to grow together and have good team chemistry like we did, it says a lot about the guys.”
Newman was the catalyst for his team, scoring a team-high 21 points and pulling down a game-high 11 rebounds. The leader for US was rewarded by being named the Most Valuable Player for the World Championship. “The team they just look to me for scoring and the coaches do also so I just took it on myself to bring us back,” Newman said.
Showalter said of his coach on the floor: “He’s a team leader. He’s got a great personality and he’s going to be a great pro if he keeps improving. He’s going to be in the NBA for a long time just because of the things he does off the court other than basketball.”
For Australia, guard Dejan Vasiljevic was deadly beyond the arc, racking up a game-high 29 points on 6-of-13 shooting on 3-pointers. As a team, the Boomers held a sizeable advantage from deep as they shot 11-of-24 to give themselves a fighting chance.
From the tip, Australia came out and punched the heavy favourites in the mouth to take a quick 17-7 lead midway through the first quarter. Newman kept his team afloat during the run, scoring 10 of his team’s first 18 points to lead them to 28-27 lead after the first.
From there, the US settled into a rhythm and used their full-court trap to force turnovers and stifle Australia’s attack. The Boomers fought to keep the deficit around single digits until a flurry of desperation 3’s in the final minute of the contest narrowed the score.
