Bradley Beal torched Australia from the outside in the USA's 105-70 win Friday.
Photo by Steven Maikoski/USA Basketball
The United States Under-17 National Team punched its ticket to the semifinals of the
FIBA World Championship on Friday with a 105-70 win over Australia in Hamburg, Germany.
The win improved the USA to 6-0 at the event with the last five wins all coming by 35 points or more.
Bradley Beal of Chaminade (St. Louis, Mo.) foiled Australia's plan to make the Americans win it from outside, hitting 7-of-9 3-point attempts en route to a game-high 25 points. Beal, a University of Florida verbal commitment, is averaging 18.3 points per game – the third-highest total among in the 12-team event.
"We decided that we would try to keep them away from the basket and hope their 3-point play wouldn’t go so good," Australia coach Guy Molloy said. "But their 3-point play turned out to be outstanding.”
Spurred by Beal's effort, the United States hit 11 long-distance attempts on 24 attempts (45.8 percent).
James McAdoo of Norfolk Christian (Norfolk, Va.) continued his solid showing in the tournament with 17 points and nine rebounds. The North Carolina Tar Heel commitment is posting 14.0 points and 7.3 rebounds per contest in Germany.
Other key contributors against Australia included Andre Drummond with a 10-point, 12-board double-double, Marquis Teague (10 points, eight assists) and Tony Wroten Jr. (11 points, seven assists).
Australia was led in the scoring column by Taylor Dyson with 16 points.
The United States – averaging 107.6 points per game at the event – will face Canada in the semifinals Saturday. The Canadians got past China, 102-96, in their quarterfinal.
Lithuania beat Germany 73-61 to earn a spot on the opposite side of the semifinal bracket and will face the winner of tonight's contest between Poland and Serbia.
