USA Overtakes China For First Tour Win

Carl Berman

24 Jun 2015

Blog

1 comment

Chenzhou, China – The NetScouts Basketball USA All-Stars (1-2) played nearly a perfect fourth quarter to overtake host China 91-84 before a nearly sellout crowd of 5,688 at the Chenzhou Sports Center. 6’6 Andrew Warren and 6’7 Tyrone White led the winners with 20 points each, both hitting important late baskets. 6’1 Hanchen Luo led four double-figure scorers for China with 15 points.

This game was close throughout with the USA starting off well for the third straight game with a 10-4 lead. China came back to take a 20-17 first quarter lead and tied the game at 40 on a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer. China made 13-of-31 from long-distance to stay in the game. The third quarter was the highest scoring quarter of the trip so far (27-26) as China took a one-point lead. The Americans rode key three-pointers late in the fourth quarter by Warren, White and Garrett Nevels to pull away from China for the victory. Warren and White both made important baskets taking their defender off the dribble.

Andrew Warren

This was by far the most effective game the USA has played on the tour. They scored 51 points in the second half, and only committed eight turnovers in the game, none in the fourth quarter. The USA’s turnovers have been reduced from 22 to 15 to eight in the three games. For the first time the USA out-rebounded their opponent (+1) and shot 57 percent on their two-point attempts. They were only 1-of-9 from long-distance in the first half but then came back to shoot 6-of-14 in the second half as they made 7-of-23 (30.4 percent) for the game.

White was very effective taking the ball to the basket, drawing eight fouls. Warren shot 8-of-13 for the game and exhibited vocal leadership down the stretch. Point guard Johnathan Loyd played by far his best game of the trip with eight assists against only one turnover. 6’9 Josiah Heath has established himself as the starting center playing hard throughout and registering another double-double (12 points, 12 rebounds). Heath also drew six fouls.

Nevels gave the team strong defense and rebounding (8 boards) in addition to his key baskets. Centers Teeng Akol (6 points) and Joe Wolfinger (5 points) had some important hoops with Akol active on the interior and Wolfinger hitting a three-pointer. Keith Chamberlain and Tyler Gaffaney both gave the team solid minutes off the bench as the USA tightened their rotation in the game to try to get their first win.

Johnathan Loyd

USA All-Stars Head Coach Bruce Chavka: “Anytime you can beat a China team in front of close 6,000 of their fans it’s a great experience. We showed some solid leadership tonight when the game was in the balance. This was by far our most effective game as a team and a good way for us to end the tournament here in Chenzhou”.

The team will leave Chenzhou this morning and travel to Shenzhen by high speed train for the three-game tournament there. It will be about a 2.5 hour train ride. The trains travel at about 170 mph and it’s much more convenient than flying. Today is a travel day with competition continuing tomorrow evening with a game against Slovenia.

NetScouts Basketball USA All-Stars (17-23-26-25 = 91)

Johnathan Loyd (Oregon) 10 points, 3 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals

Garrett Nevels (Hawaii) 10 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals

Tyler Gaffaney (Claremont) 2 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist

Tyrone White (Bakersfield/D-League) 20 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal

Andrew Warren (Bradley/D-League) 20 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 1 block

Kyle Coston (Portland State/New Zealand) 2 points

Keith Chamberlain (Grinnell/D-League) 4 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists

Josiah Heath (Canisius) 12 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks

Teeng Akol (Western Kentucky/Mongolia) 6 points, 2 rebounds, 1 block

Joe Wolfinger (Citadel/Japan) 5 points, 3 rebounds, 1 block

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