Nike Global Challenge: USA-1 vs. Senegal
Words. HShoop
DeMarcus Cousins (photo. Kelly Kline)
The Nike Global Challenge is for real. Unlike many other summertime camps and tournaments on the high school scene, the games here at the Liberty H.S. gym in the Portland, Ore., suburb of Hillsboro are always intense, hard-fought, and the teams genuinely want to win more than show off for the scouts.
Nike flew in five international teams — Puerto Rico, Serbia, Lithuania, Canada and Senegal — of teenagers and young men to compete against three teams of high schoolers from the United States. The American teams represent a cross-section of some of the best players from the 2009, 2010 and 2011 classes. Games are played by FIBA international rules.
The opener saw Senegal take on USA-1. DeMarcus Cousins, 2009 center from Le Flore (Alabama), is the marquee player on the USA-1 squad and arguably one of the two or three biggest names in this entire tournament. Cousins looked good, scoring a game-high 23 points on 9-for-12 shooting along with five steals and five rebounds. If the UAB commit had a flaw, it was that he too often looked like he wanted to play in the backcourt; Cousins would stand out by the perimeter calling for the ball rather than post up, sometimes he seemed to be trying out new slasher moves on the fly, and he launched four three-pointers (albeit making three of them).
The Americans jumped out to an 8-0 lead right off the bat, but Senegal — which has a documentary film crew in tow this weekend — was not going to allow themselves to be embarrassed. They climbed back in it to cut the U.S. lead to one at the end of the first quarter, and kept the game mostly within single-digits until the last five minutes or so of the fourth, when the U.S. ran away with it in an eventual 13-point win. The game was full of fouls and rough play, as Cousins in particular had a few scraps with 7-foot Aziz Ndiaye, a physical specimen who will play at the College of Southern Idaho (JUCO) this year, and University of Virginia signee Assane Sene, also 7-feet tall. The Sengalese players weren’t shy about trading elbow grease with the U.S., nor were they above barking at the refs when they didn’t get calls.
Ndiaye finished with 10 points, 18 rebounds and two blocks, while 6-foot-5 shooter Byago Diouf (also headed to Southern Idaho) scored 22 for Senegal. Roger Franklin, a 6-3 guard from Duncanville (Texas) who bears a striking resemblance to Keenan Ivory Wayans, scored 16 for the U.S., and 5-10 point guard Tommy Mason-Griffin, an Oak Hill product, put up 13 and four assists.
NOTES
* Mason-Griffin is committed to Oklahoma. Stocky and quick at 5-foot-10, by appearance and style he is comparable to Jamaal Tinsley.
* Team USA’s backup PG, junior Phil Pressey from Episcopal School of Dallas (Texas), is also under six-foot and looks like he’s about 12 years old in the face. Phil is the son of former NBA vet Paul Pressey, one of the originators of the “point-forward” position. Phil showed he can pass like his dad, making one of the plays of the game when he darted into the lane and dropped a pretty behind-the-back dime to teammate Royce White for a dunk.
* Duke commit Mason Plumlee, a 6-11 senior from Christ School (N.C.) has “next Brian Zoubek” written all over him. Plumlee struggled mightily against Senegal’s physically superior big men: he dropped passes, turned the ball over while trying to pass, got dunked on, and finished with just two points, three boards and three turnovers.
* Senegal is known for producing centers and big forwards, which alone makes 5-foot-9 point guard Thiero Ibra Niang stand out. He scored 9 points and had some impressive finishes at the cup, but missed almost every jump shot he took (4-for-17 FG’s) and committed eight turnovers.
[...] to be placed in a tournament along with five international squads from Serbia, Canada, Puerto Rico, Senegal and Lithuania. While all of the international teams were solid — especially Serbia, a team of [...]