Nike Global Challenge: Championship
Words. HShoop
Avery Bradley (photo. Kelly Kline)
United We Rise. The same slogan that Kobe, LeBron and the rest of the U.S. senior national team has adopted for the Beijing Olympics could also have been used to describe the mindset of the American high schoolers on “USA-2″ as they took the ‘chip at the Nike Global Challenge this past weekend.
“Playing together,” said 2009 SF/SG Roscoe Smith (Walbrook HS, Baltimore) when asked about his team’s keys to victory. “Building a trust in one another and a unity. We kept our head in the game and trusted one another.”
Powering through a field that included five international teams (Serbia, Senegal, Canada, Puerto Rico and Lithuania) and two other United States teams made up of hand-selected players from across the country, USA-2 faced USA-1 in the NGC championship game — or gold medal game, if you will — at the Liberty HS gym in suburban Portland.
USA-1 jumped out to a quick 6-0 lead after tip-off, punctuated by a follow dunk by Rodney Williams Jr. (Robbinsdale Cooper, New Hampshire), and appeared ready to cruise to an easy win. USA-2′s offense was running strictly through Bellarmine Prep (Wash.) backcourt mates Abdul Gaddy and Avery Bradley, and while the two displayed some impressive ball-handling, their shots weren’t going down and their teammates weren’t getting involved.
A few minutes into the first quarter USA-2 found themselves down by nine points, and after coach Al La Rocque (Durango, Las Vegas) called a timeout to gather his troops, they grabbed control of the game and never looked back. Supermodel-thin power forward John Henson (Round Rock, Texas) got a dunk, then smooth scoring SF Jordan Hamilton (Dominguez, Compton) made a strong take to the rim and got two free throws out of the deal. Back-to-back transition buckets from Bradley and Gaddy continued the run, then a follow dunk by Smith, then a spectacular coast-to-coast finger roll from Gaddy that was right out of Chris Paul‘s playbook eventually tied it up. At the end of the first quarter USA-2 led by five, and held onto a small lead at halftime. Halfway through the third quarter USA-2 extended the lead to 10, then to 13 at the end of the quarter.
The fourth quarter began with a USA-1 run. Diminutive point guard Phil Pressey (Episcopal School, Dallas) converted a couple of left-handed scoop shots and hit his teammates for some easy buckets underneath, and Williams threw down a follow dunk so hard he was checking his hand for blood and bruises on his way back downcourt. That and a full-court press helped USA-1 pull within single-digits, but whenever they got close, Bradley would score, or Smith would hit a three, or Henson would establish himself on defense.
The dagger came when Gaddy scored on a transition layup, got a hand on the inbounds leading to a steal, and found UNC commit Reggie Bullock (Kinston, NC) in the corner for a long two-pointer that put USA-2 up, 101-87, with 3:30 left. And they twisted the dagger about 30 seconds later, when Bradley fed Bullock for a layup and then another turnover led to a breakaway dunk for Smith, making it 105-87.
The final count was 117-104. Bradley ended up with 25 points, Roscoe Smith had 22 and seven rebounds, Hamilton had 16 points and 10 boards, Henson had eight points and 11 boards, and Gaddy finished with 12 points and seven assists.
DeMarcus Cousins (Le Flore, Alabama) led the losing team with 29 points, while Alex Oriakhi (Tilton, NH) added 18 and 11 rebounds.
Bradley and Gaddy ended up sharing United States co-MVP honors for the tournament, while Serbian forward Nikola Markovic was named international MVP. Markovic led Serbia to a fourth-place finish and put up 17 points and 13 rebounds (plus the game-winning shot) in a Day 1 upset of USA-3.
The USA all-tournament team included SG Harrison Barnes (Ames, Iowa), Henson, PG John Wall (Word of God, NC), SF/PF DeShaun Thomas (Bishop Luers, Indiana) and Cousins.
The international all-tournament team was made up of forward Mindaugas Kuzminskas (Lithuania), forward Alwayne Bigby (Canada), guard Raymond Cintron Cortes (Puerto Rico), center Aziz Ndiaye (Senegal) and guard Filip Covic (Serbia).
NOTES
* Pre-game layup lines delved into a 15-minute dunk contest, which unofficially went to USA-2′s Wally Judge. The 6-9 senior forward from Arlington Country Day (Fla.) was taking off from the free throw line and finishing with relative ease.
* Canada beat Serbia in the third-place game, getting 23 points, eight boards and three steals from Bigby and 17 points from point guard Cory Joseph. Cory is the younger brother of incoming Minnesota freshman Devoe Joseph, who represented Canada at last spring’s Nike Hoop Summit. Markovic led Serbia with 19 points.
* USA-3 beat Lithuania in the fifth-place game. Ohio State 2010 commit DeShaun Thomas led the way with 23 points, 2010 center Jeremy Tyler (San Diego) scored 15, and 2010 PG Gary Franklin (Mater Dei, Calif.) also had 15. Kuziminskas, a Dirk Nowitzki clone at 6-9, scored 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the loss.
* Wall, perhaps the top player in America overall, had 12 points and seven assists in USA-3′s win. Wall turned Sunday’s game into an acrobatic showcase, throwing down several left-handed dunks in traffic, blocking shots on the break and having some incredible near-miss dunks and alley-oops.
“I felt like I was playing alright (this weekend),” Wall said, “but for the last game you want to always play your best, so I thought I’d bring out some stuff.”
* Wall wasn’t the only one wowing the crowd in that game: Tyler had a breakaway dunk where he soared in and touched the backboard with his left hand before dunking with his right hand; Lithuania’s Simas Buterlevicius crammed one on Dion Waiters (Roman Catholic, Philly) that got even the most pro-USA fans out of their seats; Mike Moser (Grant, Portland) had some sick ‘oop finishes via Wall, and Waiters got in on the act with some impossible finger rolls and a couple highlight-reel dunks.
* Puerto Rico’s Cortes was probably the tournament’s leading scorer, and finished up by dropping 31 points in PR’s seventh-place win over Senegal. Cortes is to the young PR team what Carlos Arroyo is to the country’s senior team; a shoot-first PG who dominates the ball partially out of necessity. Seven-foot Ndiaye had 12 points and 13 boards for Senegal.
[...] Over the weekend, while most of the world else was eating, sleeping and breathing Olympic hoops from Beijing, the Portland suburb of Hillsboro, Ore., played home to some future Olympians at the Nike Global Challenge. [...]
Bradley is a star in the making. It’s not fair that kids in Seattle gotta play against him and Gaddy in the same back court in HS. Would love to see them go to the same college too.
[...] from Beijing, the Portland suburb of Hillsboro, Ore., played home to some future Olympians at the Nike Global Challenge. Avery Bradley (photo. Kelly [...]