Five players reached double-figures as the USA advanced to the championship game of the FIBA U17 World Championship where it will play Turkey on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET (ESPNU).
In the semifinals, the Americans ousted Lithuania, 98-70, in Zaragoza, Spain.
The USA U17 men won gold in all three previous FIBA U17 World Championships (2010, 2012 and 2014) and now stand at 29-0 all-time in U17 play.
The USA has earned three gold medals in the three U17 World Championships, the best finish for both Lithuania (2010) and Spain (2012, 2014) has been fourth place, while 2016 marks Turkey’s first time competing in the U17 Worlds.
Markus Howard, who was 3-of-3 from beyond the arc, led the Americans with 16 points. The USA was also led by Collin Sexton (Pebblebrook H.S./Mableton, Ga.) and Gary Trent Jr. (Apple Valley H.S./Burnsville, Minn.) with 15 points apiece, Carte’Are Gordon (Webster Groves H.S./St. Louis, Mo.) scored 13 points, and Kevin Knox II (Tampa Catholic H.S./Riverview, Fla.) chipped in 10 points.
<p”>”We knew we were going to get their best shot early,” said USA U17 head coach Don Showalter (USA Basketball), who tonight upped his record with USA U16 and U17 teams to 44-0. “They were fresh, they hit a few 3s, they had some really great action on their offense that we didn’t do a very good job defending to start with. But We adjusted really, really well as the game went on. Our kids communicated with each other very well. We cut all of their screening action down, so they weren’t able to get very good shots. As the game went on we got a lot better.
