U19 men grab gold

AUCKLAND, New Zealand - The 18 year drought between FIBA U19 World Championships is over for the United States men.  Behind 18 points from Tyshawn Taylor (Kansas / Jersey City, N.J.) and another balanced scoring effort that featured seven players contributing eight or more points, the USA fended off a determined Greek team to post an 88-80 victory Sunday night in the FIBA World Championship gold medal game in Auckland, New Zealand.  The USA squad, led by University of Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon , finished with a spotless 9-0 record and recorded a 22.2 margin of victory in the championship.

"We really set as a goal to win the gold medal. We also made it very clear that we hadn't won this since 1991, we talked about that and we used that as motivation throughout the month we've been together and I think it was really an important part of our work ethic and what we did. We did a great job of committing to one another for a month and I thought it was just great. We had great kids that worked all the way through and committed to getting the gold medal and gave up, sacrificed individual glory," said Dixon

"This team was unique as far as U.S. teams. I think it was better suited for international. We may not have had as many name guys as other teams, but I really thought it was suited and I think we selected guys that were suited to the international game and the FIBA rules. We really shot the ball well, we were skilled, we were a good free throw shooting team and I think that was something that was beneficial to us."

The USA, medal winners now in seven of the nine FIBA U19 World Championships, hadn't won the tournament since finishing 8-0 in 1991, capturing seventh (4-4) in 1995, silver (7-1) in 1999, fifth in 2003 and silver in 2007 in Novi Sad, Serbia.

A panel of accredited media representatives covering the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship selected the MVP and the All-Star Five of the Tournament.  The All-Star Five of the 2009 FIBA U19 World Championship featured Taylor and Gordon Hayward (Butler / Brownsburg, Ind.) of the USA, Toni Prostran (Croatia), Nikos Pappas (Greece), and Mario Delas (Croatia), who was also selected MVP of the championship.

"We got off to a 16 point lead at halftime and I thought we had played well. In the second half they came out and gave their run. I thought we didn't get as good of a shot as we wanted and they hit a couple of big threes, one was a touch shot, another one was a transition one. You knew they were going to make a run and I think we withstood it pretty well and then kept the separation. We had a number of guys in foul trouble, we had to play through some things."