Gary A. Vasquez-USA Today Sports
The basketball world was transfixed on Game 3 of the Miami Heat – San Antonio Spurs and rightfully so, but believe it or not there was another battle on the hardwood that grabbed some attention.
We’re talking about the United States U16 squad, who took on Mexico on Tuesday night and sent a message that simply read: hey, these guys can flat out play.
Everybody on the United States’ roster scored, including seven individual players who finished in double figures. You can put that into perspective in comparison to this Mexico squad that didn’t even manage to score double-digits in any of the four quarters.
The final score on Tuesday night was 130-31. That’s right, the United States won by 99 points. Take a look at the box score by clicking HERE.
Diamond Stone led the way in all, finishing the game with 20 points. Yes, that nearly equaled Mexico’s entire team total. Malik Newman chipped in with 19 points and ironically enough, neither of them played more than 20 minutes in this contest. Everything aside, the United States was certainly expected to win this contest, but nobody saw this type of beat down.
The future bodes well for basketball and this particular recruiting class if these prospects are going to put up numbers like this. The United States shot 57.1% from the field in the victory, while limiting Mexico to a whopping 8-of-65 on the other end of the floor.
This was the team’s opening game of the FIBA Americas U16 Championship, they will play Argentina on Wednesday.
Follow Paul Seaver on Twitter: @PaulSeaverRS
