USA Ends Play in Shenzhen With Win Over China

Carl Berman

29 Jun 2015

Blog

1 comment

Shenzhen, China – The NetScouts Basketball USA All-Stars closed out play in Shenzhen with a 78-70 win over host China before 4,588 fans at the Bao’an Gymnasium in Shenzhen. It was the Americans second straight win over China.

The Americans played with only eight players again with Andrew Warren not getting a rest until the game was decided with 1:16 remaining. Johnathan Loyd played over 33 minutes and kept himself on the court after drawing his third foul at the start of the third quarter.

This game went back and forth as China was strong in the first and third quarters and the USA solid in the second and fourth periods. China went out to a 27-19 lead after the first quarter. Then the USA had their best quarter of the tour outscoring the Chinese 23-8 to take a seven-point halftime lead. China wasn’t easy to put away as they came back to tie the score at 56 after three quarters. China took a three-point lead early in the fourth period and it appeared that the USA was out of gas. However, the team showed its guts and came back to take the lead on a layup by Garrett Nevels on a feed from Loyd. Loyd then stole the in-bounds pass and scored, increasing the lead to four points. The USA then extended the lead to 12 before China scored the final two baskets of the game.

Garrett Nevels

Nevels had an outstanding all-around game with 21 points (10-of-18 FGA), five rebounds, five assists and three steals. Loyd’s line was just as good – 19 points (8-of-11 FGA), nine rebounds, eight assists and five steals. Warren, displaying leadership in continually declining a rest, added 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including 3-of-5 from long distance. Josiah Heath (13 + 9) came on in the second half to make several key baskets. 7’1 Joe Wolfinger had a solid game (6 + 8) playing 22 minutes off the bench in relief of Teeng Akol who had an off night. Keith Chamberlain and Tyler Gaffaney contributed with team play in their time on the court.

Andrew Warren

The Americans shot 5-of-11 on three-pointers, 45 percent overall and a solid 9-of-10 from the free throw line. They had a +5 rebounding advantage over the Chinese and only committed eight turnovers. It was their second straight game with fewer than ten turnovers. The game was well-officiated with only 28 total fouls called.

USA All-Stars Head Coach Bruce Chavka: “This team showed tremendous heart in beating China on their court with a limited rotation. I thought we were out of gas after the third quarter but we still had some fuel left. It’s too bad we have only one game left as this team is getting better and better.”

NetScouts Basketball USA All-Stars (19-23-14-22 = 78)

Johnathan Loyd (Oregon) 19 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, 5 steals

Garrett Nevels (Hawaii) 21 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals

Tyler Gaffaney (Claremont) 0 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist

Johnathan Loyd

Tyrone White (Bakersfield/D-League) DNP

Andrew Warren (Bradley/D-League) 19 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists

Kyle Coston (Portland State/New Zealand) DNP

Keith Chamberlain (Grinnell/D-League) 0 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist

Josiah Heath (Canisius) 13 points, 9 rebounds, 1 block, 1 steal

Teeng Akol (Western Kentucky/Mongolia) 0 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist

Joe Wolfinger (Citadel/Japan) 6 points, 8 rebounds

The team traveled to the city of Zao Zhuang today. This is a smallish city (3 million people) and is the southern-most city in Shandong Province. The trip took longer than we were led to believe. The 2.5 hour plane rode was really four hours and the one hour bus ride was over two hours. This area has recently been hit with rainstorms and floods. The area leading into the city was very rural and quite wet. The hotel we are staying at here is a little on the funky side. We’re waiting to find out how the food will be.

The local sponsor here is quite rich and owns the hotel we are staying at as well as the gym we will be playing at. There will be free admission to the final tour game against Denmark tomorrow night.

You can subscribe to our RSS feed from the upper right corner of our home page, follow us on Facebook, or on twitter.

Any international players interested in coming to the USA to play in college, prep school or high school can contact us here.  We are looking for interns and sales associates. If you’re interested contact us and forward your resume.