Advance To Global Games Gold Medal Game

Kevin Pittsnogle Drains 6-Of-6 From 3-Point To Finish With 24 Points

DALLAS, Texas (July 3, 2003) -- Behind a spectacular shooting performance by 6-10 Kevin Pittsnogle (West Virginia / Martinsburg, W. Va.) who erupted for 19 of his game high 24 points in the third quarter on 6-of-6 shooting from 3-point, the USA Junior World Championship Team (4-0) stormed past Canada 102-71 Thursday night in Global Games action at Southern Methodist Universitys Moody Coliseum. The win was the USAs fourth consecutive victory and earned the American juniors a berth in Saturdays Global Games gold medal game. The USAs opponent in the championship game (8 p.m. CDT) will be the Global Games Select Team (3-1), a team the U.S. handled 97-77 in a meeting on July 1.

"I got on a bit of a hot streak. I started feeling it a little bit and my teammates got me the ball when I was open," remarked Pittsnogle, who finished with a game high 24 points. "I've never really been on a hot streak like that. In college I've probably made three in a row, then got pulled and sat the bench for a couple of minutes then came back in and hit another one or two later on, but nothing where I hit five or six in a row.

“Once I hit my first shot I got a lot more confidence and I just felt it coming. In previous game I haven’t been really shooting real well, I’ve been shooting decent, but I haven’t been shooting to my full potential. It’s nice to show how I can shoot the ball well when I’m feeling it. My teammates are great, they find people when they’re open. When I was open they gave me the ball and I shot it.”

The USA put some breathing room between itself and Canada early in the contest. With the score even 9-9 with 5:42 to go in the first stanza, the trapping USA defense reeked havoc on Canada’s offense and the U.S. ripped off 12 straight points during a 16-2 run to end the quarter in full control 25-11. Six different players scored during the run.

Following a Maurice Ager (Michigan State / Detroit, Mich.) 3-pointer, two free throws from Paul Davis (Michigan State / Rochester, Mich.) and another three from Deron Williams (Illinois / The Colony, Texas), the USA lead ballooned to 33-13 with 7:10 to play in the second quarter. Canada rallied back into contention behind a 12-2 run to close the margin to 35-25, then after the USA’s Williams found the bottom of the net on a 3-pointer, Canada scored six straight points to close within seven, 38-31, with 2:46 remaining before half.

Davis stopped Canada’s momentum with a 3-pointer of his own and the U.S. went on to post an 8-1 run to close out the second quarter and retired to the locker room at halftime ahead 46-32.

It was lights out for Canada in the third quarter as it was all Pittsnogle and the USA. Outscoring Canada 38-11 in the third stanza, Pittsnogle had a memorable third quarter, accounting for 19 points while sinking all six 3-pointers in 5:25 of the third quarter.

In the win, Williams finished with 16 points on 4-of-7 shooting from 3-point, and added seven assists, while Ryan Hollins (UCLA / Pasadena, Calif.) added 12 points, nine rebounds, four steals and two assists, and Mustafa Shakur (Friends Central High School / Wynnewood, Pa.) scored 10 points and snatched four steals.

“It was good to be able to get to the point where we could play some guys who maybe haven’t got a lot of playing tine. It was good for them for conditioning purposes and just for us to be ably to evaluate and see them as well,” said USA head coach Ernie Kent.

“It is going to be just one tough basketball game," said Kent about the gold medal contest. "Just a grind it out game because they are a very good young talented basketball team They had a huge win, a confidence boosting game, and really played well. It’s not going to be a 20-point game, it’s going to probably be one of those close, down to the wire games.”

“You’ll probably just get better performances from people the second time around, that’s only natural. Typically when team have an opportunity to play somebody again particularly this quickly, they come at them with more energy so we’ve got to make sure our energy and our intensity level is where it needs to be as well,” said Kent.

The USA Junior squad began training June 24 and will compete July 10-20 in the 2003 FIBA Men’s Junior World Championship that was recently moved from Malaysia to Thessaloniki, Greece. Featuring 16 junior national teams that qualified last summer, the teams have been placed into four groups of four for preliminary round robin play. The top two teams from each group will advance to the medal second round, while the remainder of the field will compete for 9th - 16th place. The USA has been placed in Group C, joining China, Nigeria and Slovenia. The USA will open play against Slovenia on July 10, and face China on July 11 and Nigeria on July 12. Second round action is being played July 14-16, while the world championship semifinals slated to be held July 19 and the finals will be played July 20.

Eligibility for the 2003 USA Basketball Men’s Junior World Championship Team is limited to any male athlete who is a U.S. citizen and 19-years-old or younger (born on or after Jan. 1, 1984). The USA team finalists were selected by the USA Basketball Men’s Collegiate Committee. The official 12-member USA junior team will be finalized during the team’s June 24-July 6 training camp in Dallas. The USA squad as part of its training for the FIBA Junior World Championship is taking part in the 2003 Global Games that feature 10 teams.

Results from Thursday’s other games saw the Global Games Select Team hand Yugoslavia (3-1) its first loss of the tournament 94-87, Puerto Rico (2-2) bettered Brazil (0-4) 73-57, Africa (2-2) narrowly slipped past Scandinavia (1-3) 66-64, and Lithuania (2-2) upended Ukraine (1-3) 70-52.

The Global Games finals will feature Brazil versus Scandinavia in the 9th/10th place game; Ukraine against Africa in the seventh/eighth place contest; Puerto Rico goes against Lithuania in the fifth/sixth place game, while Yugoslavia and Canada square off in the bronze medal game.