USA women capture FIBA Americas U16 Championship gold medal with 103-52 win over Canada

Following a first quarter fight from Canada (4-1), the 2009 USA Women's U16 National Team (5-0) outscored its opponent by 20 points in the second quarter to help secure a early lead and an impressive 103-52 win and the inaugural 2009 FIBA Americas U16 Championship gold medal on Friday night at Juan de la Barrera Gym in Mexico City.

Elizabeth Williams (Princess Anne H.S. / Virginia Beach, Va.), who led five U.S. players in double figures with 19 points and seven rebounds, was named the Most Valuable Player of the 2009 FIBA Americas U16 Championship.

"It's really nice to be named MVP, but obviously my teammates really helped me out because they are the ones who got me the ball," Williams said. "I feel really proud, and it's even better that we won the gold medal."

The USA, Canada and Argentina (3-2), which captured the bronze medal with a 64-47 win over Brazil (2-3) earlier today, have all earned a berth into the 2010 FIBA U17 World Championship.

"It's been pretty amazing," said Barbara Nelson, USA and Wingate University head coach. "When we got them in June, we felt like we had some really good pieces, but we weren't sure we could glue it together. Every kid was used to being the best player on their team, and they had to decide they were going to forfeit that and just be a great team player. Every single kid bought into that, and that has made all the difference in the world in us being a great team."

Also tallying double figures for the USA were Justine Hartman (Brea Olinda H.S. / Brea, Calif.) with 14 points, Betnijah Laney (Smyrna H.S. / Clayton, Del.) with 13; Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (Mater Dei H.S. / Anaheim, Calif.) tallied 12 points; and Jordan Adams (Mater Dei H.S. / Irvine, Calif.) added 10 points and five assists.

"Canada definitely was the tallest team we have played so far," Mosqeuda-Lewis said. "They did give us a little bit of a problem in the beginning, but our bigs overcame it and they did great. I think our whole team just came together once again. Tonight was a ton of fun."

Both teams came out aggressive, and at the 7:08 mark, Canada held an 8-7 lead. At 6:54 Adams converted an offensive rebound and launched a 13-0 U.S. run that gave the USA a 20-8 advantage with two free throws from Ariel Massengale (Bolingbrook H.S. / Bolingbrook, Ill.) at 4:40. Canada fought back, however, and cut the lead to 27-20 as the first quarter buzzer sounded.

Canada put the second period's first points on the board, but the USA defense starred in the quarter, forcing eight turnovers and holding Canada to just nine points. Eight U.S. players helped the USA tally 29 points to take a comfortable 56-29 lead at halftime.

"We expected it be difficult, not as easy as our other games," Williams said. "We knew if we picked it up, we could stretch our lead out. Defense is always what gets us over a hump, and that was true tonight."

Though Canada never quit fighting, the USA was too strong defensively and had too many weapons on offense for Canada to defend. Allowing Canada just six more points on 1-of-17 shooting in the third period, the Americans opened with a 13-0 run and never looked back. Headed into the final 10 minutes, eight U.S. players had scored in the third quarter to push the lead to 50 points, 85-35.

The USA lead swelled to its largest margin of the game late in the fourth quarter, a 53-point advantage off of a Hartman bucket with just 20 seconds remaining. Canada scored two points in the last few seconds to bring the final score to 103-52.

"We all really worked together," Hartman said. "We had never played together before, and then all of the sudden we were on a team together, and we had to learn to play together and learn each other's habits on the court. I just think we bonded well, and we learned the value of teamwork."

Breanna Stewart (Cicero-North Syracuse H.S. / North Syracuse, N.Y.) added eight points; Massengale tallied seven points and dished out six assists; Cierra Burdick (Butler H.S. / Mathews, N.C.) added six points, seven rebounds, five assists and five steals.

The USA tallied 80 points in the paint, scored 52 bench points compared to Canada's 26 and outrebounded Canada 45-25.

Cruising undefeated through the tournament, the USA won its five games by an average of 70.0 points and listed No. 1 in 13 of 19 statistical categories.

"I'm excited for the kids because they were expected to win this tournament, and that kind of expectation comes with some pressure," Nelson said. "For them to be able to finish that and leave no doubt was a great thing."

Nelson is assisted by Mike Armstrong of Perry Meridian High School (Ind.) and Dorena Bingham of Team Alaska AAU.

In today's other games, Mexico (3-2) finished fifth with a 72-56 win over Puerto Rico (2-3), which finished sixth; and Dominican Republic (1-4) topped Guatemala (0-5) 65-57 to finish seventh and eighth, respectively.