Thon Maker
Garden Grove, CA – The adidas Nations event continued with morning and evening sessions in the second day of competition on Saturday at the Next Level Sports Complex in Garden Grove, CA.
The international teams fared better winning their first two games of the event as Europe and Africa came away with victories in the morning session. Europe topped USA 2015-Rose 79-74 while Africa beat USA 2015-Howard 79-74. In the other games USA 2016-Wall defeated Latin America 102-69 and USA 2016-Lillard beat Canada 98-84.
Europe won in a game in which 67 fouls were called with 88 total foul shots attempted. The USA team missed 23 foul shots (30-53) which was the difference. They also shot a poor 20-of-71 from the field. 6’8 Mouhamed Thaim (Senegal) led Europe with 13 points and ten rebounds and 6’8 Sergey Prymiak (Ukraine) added 11 but the two combined to shoot 7-of-29 from the field. 6’8 Brandon Ingram kept the Americans in the game with 20 points.
The African squad came back from a lopsided loss yesterday and played much better in their victory. Their two starting bigs 6’9 Cheickna Dembele (Mali) and 6’10 Abdoulaye Ndoye (Senegal) scored a combined 29 points and 14 rebounds and battled top recruit 6’11 Chase Jeter (11 points, 11 rebounds) evenly. 6’4 point guard Renethan Ona Embo played almost the entire game and scored 18 points. 6’5 PG Justin Simon led Team Howard with 24 points.
Dennis Smith
6’4 Rawle Alkins scored 22 points on 9-of-13 shooting and 6’7 Maverick Rowan added 21 points and seven rebounds to lead Team Wall to the easy win over Latin America. 6’9 Billy Preston added a double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds. 6’5. Wesley Alves da Silva (Brazil) led Latin America with 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting while 6’8 Lucas Colierio added 15 points and 11 boards.
Team Lillard had six players in double-figures in the competitive win over Canada. 6’3 Eron Gordon led the winners with 17 points and 6’10 Tony Bradley Jr. added 15. 6’2 point guard Dennis Smith has 10 assists to go along with his 12 points and 7’0 Thon Maker added 11 points and eight boards. 6’6 Dillon Brooks (Findlay Prep) led Canada with 22 points and 6’4 Jalen Poyser had 19 points, five rebounds and three assists.
The Americans reasserted themselves in the evening session winning their three games. Team Howard topped Asia Pacific 86-68, Team Rose won over Latin America 90-82and Team Wall took care of Europe 81-65. In the international match-up Canada ran way late from Africa 85-68.
Team Howard played only seven players in their win with six scoring in double-figures led by 18 points from 6’6 Derrick Jones. 6’11 Chase Jeter added 14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. Will McDowell-White led Asia Pacific with 16 points and six rebounds and 6’8 Keanu Pinder (Australia) added 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Latin America played their best game of the weekend in their loss to Team Rose. 6’5. Wesley Alves da Silva (Brazil) continued his solid play with 24 points and seven rebounds while 6’10 Adriano Alves Junior helped with 10 points and eight boards. 6’8 Brandon Ingram and 6’6 Dwayne Bacon led the Americans with 16 points each.
Kobi Simmons
6’5 Kobi Simmons led Team Wall in their victory with 20 points while Rawle Atkins and Billy Preston both added 17 points. 6’10 Sidibe Bourame (Mali) was most impressive for Europe with 13 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots. 7’0 center Konstantin Kulikov (Russia) also looked solid with 14 points on 7-of-8 shooting.
Canada broke open a close game late, turning a 56-56 tie into a 17-point win. Dillon Brooks and Jalen Poyser continued their strong play. Brooks (28 points, eight rebounds) had his way in one-on-one situations while Poyser added 23 points. Point guard 6’0 Munis Mahmound Tutu (La Lumiere Academy) was the ultimate difference in the contest scoring most of his 15 points late and also added eight rebounds, seven assists and four steals. 6’10 Abdoulaye Ndoye led Africa with 18 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks. 6’10 Mamadi Diakite contributed 17 points and four blocks while Ranathan One Embo had is third straight double-figure game with 16 points and added eight boards.
In the college counselor games UCLA’s Norman Powell (22 points, six rebounds), Terry Rozier (Louisville – 17 points), Tony Parker (UCLA – 13 points in both his games), Stanley Johnson (Arizona – 13 points) Austin Nichols of Memphis (14 points, eight rebounds) and Louisville’s Montrezl Harrell (16 points) all had good games.
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