Gary Trent Jr. and Jarred Vanderbilt scored 19 points apiece to lead the USA U16 squad to a 77-60 victory over Canada in the gold medal game of the FIBA Americas Championship in Argentina.
Trent Jr. was named tournament MVP after adding six rebounds and three steals in the win.
Wendell Carter Jr. added 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Americans, and Vanderbilt also tallied 10 boards.
Trent Jr. and Carter Jr. have discussed a package deal in college beginning in 2017, and told SNY.tv Duke was a possibility.
“I think in the first half we were a little too loose with the basketball and had some turnovers,” said USA head coach Don Showalter (Iowa City H.S., Iowa), who now owns a 43-0 record and has led U.S. teams to seven gold medals since 2009 as head coach of the USA Junior National Team (U16 and U17). “We weren’t very aggressive on the boards. They pretty much dominated us on the boards in the first half. And when you play like that, your shooting percentage isn’t very good. You’re only getting one shot and they were making their shots that first quarter. It kind of woke our players up a little bit. As the game went on we showed what we’re really made of.
“I give Canada a lot of credit,” continued Showalter. “They had a great game plan. They weren’t going to let us get a lot of second shots. They were going to make us take shots that we really didn’t want to take.”
Simisola Shittu led Canada with 18 points and Rowan Barrett added 13.
The silver medal marked Canada’s best finish at the event as it previously won bronze medals in 2009, 2011 and 2013. Argentina (3-2), which won silver medals in the past three events, finished with the bronze medal after defeating Dominican Republic (2-3) 74-59.
