U16 team dominates Argentina

MEXICO CITY, Mexico - The 2009 USA Women's U16 National Team (3-0) held Argentina (2-1) to 18.5 percent shooting from the field (12-65 FGs) and forced 28 turnovers on its way to a 93-33 win on Wednesday night at Juan de la Barrera in Mexico City, Mexico.

Advancing as Group B's No. 1 seed, the USA will play No. 2 seeded Brazil (2-1) at 6:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. EDT) in the FIBA Americas U16 Championship medal semifinals on Aug. 13. Canada (3-0), which finished as Group A's No. 1 seed, will play two-seed Argentina at 8:00 p.m.

"Our game plan against Argentina was to keep the ball out of the middle of the floor, to trap on ball screens and we wanted to contain penetration," said Barbara Nelson, USA and Wingate University head coach. "Argentina has some very good guards that I thought we contained very well. We used our size to our advantage on defense tonight. Getting stops was key for us, and we played great defense."

Elizabeth Williams (Princess Anne H.S. / Virginia Beach, Va.) tallied a game-high 18 points, followed by 16 points and eight rebounds from Breanna Stewart (Cicero-North Syracuse H.S. / North Syracuse, N.Y.) and 12 points from Betnijah Laney (Smyrna H.S. / Clayton, Del.). Kiah Stokes (Linn Mar H.S. / Marion, Iowa) rounded out the USA's double-digit scorers with 10 points.

"I think the guards found the posts really well tonight," Williams said. "They shared the ball, and everyone got shots. And our defense made a big difference. We kept them to a very low shooting percentage, and that helped us a lot tonight."

The USA's size advantage was apparent from the start. Stewart, a 6-3 forward, put the USA's first points on the board and tallied 10 of her 16 points in the first quarter. Following an old-fashioned 3-point play from Stewart at 2:56 that brought the score to 14-4, Argentina called its first timeout. The South Americans nailed a 3-pointer coming out of the break to cut the lead to 14-7, but the USA responded with a 9-2 run to take a 23-9 lead after the first period.

"I think in the beginning we were worried about what Argentina was doing," Stokes said. "Once we got past that, we really settled into our game and refocused. We like to run. Transition is our game. Once we buckled down on defense, we started to fast break and build up a lead."