KU's Quentin Grimes scores 26 in semifinals win; USA to play Canada in U18 title game

USA Basketball’s under-18 men’s national team is one win away from a gold medal at the FIBA Americas U18 Championships in St. Catherines, Canada.

Paced by the 26-point outing of University of Kansas freshman Quentin Grimes, the Bill Self-coached U.S. squad downed Argentina 104-92 in Friday night’s semifinals and advanced into Saturday’s title game (7:15 p.m. Central time) against host Canada. Canada (5-0) was a 95-89 semifinals winner over Puerto Rico.

Grimes, a combo guard from The Woodlands, Texas, hit 10 of 21 shots. He was 2 of 6 on three-pointers and made 4 of 7 free throws. Grimes also had eight rebounds and four assists in 29 minutes.

Bishop Miege senior forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl scored 10 points and had seven rebounds in 19 minutes. Also, Alec White scored 25 points, Matthew Hurt 16 and Aso Dosunmu 13 for the U.S., which hit 51.8 percent of its shots. The U.S. went 7 of 22 from three.

“There’s no question. We haven’t really been challenged much,” said Kansas coach Self, asked if the close game would help the U.S. squad gain focus for the final. “I thought Argentina played very well and smart. I think they exposed us in ways, because we’ve been able to be a little careless and loosie-goosey and not pay for our mistakes against some of our other opponents, and they made us pay for our mistakes when we weren’t very sound.

“It was a good win. Argentina’s really good. If they had their complete team (point guard Francisco Farabello was out because of injury), of course if we would have had (injured Tyrese) Maxey also, well … that may be a wash because Maxey’s playing so well. But, they’ve got a good team. Canada beating them the way they beat them in the first game, by 17, it may be as impressive a win that there’s been in the tournament so far.”

Francisco Caffero scored 22 points, while Juan De La Fuente and Juan Ignacio Marcos scored 17 apiece for Argentina (3-2).

“Obviously if we come out and are not prepared, obviously anything can happen,” Self said, asked what could stop Team USA from capturing gold.

“Canada ... what they did to the USA team last year in the 19-and-unders (Canada winning 99-87 in semifinals) should be motivation for us," Self added. "But it should also be motivation for them because they’ve already beat us once, so why can’t they do it again? So, we’ll have to amp up the intensity tomorrow. You don’t always play well when you have limited practice, but you can do a lot more to make sure the other team doesn’t play well. Hopefully we’ll be better tomorrow defensively.”

On Friday, the U.S. led 24-18 in the first quarter and by halftime had upped the lead to 54-39. Team USA led 71-59 entering the final 10 minutes and scored over 100 points for the fifth straight game.

Argentina hit 50 percent of its shots but was outrebounded by Team USA, 47-28.

“We didn’t execute coach’s game plan (in the first half)," Grimes said. "We came out executing it in the second half and came away with the win."

The U.S., which is 58-2 all-time at the event, on Saturday will be trying for its sixth straight U18 gold medal.

“We need to lock down on defense,” KU’s Grimes said, noting, “Coach Self pulled me aside last night, had us watch film as a team and he told me to guard my man, be more aggressive, play my game.”

KU recruiting update

Kansas on Friday made scholarship offers to a pair of highly-regarded high school junior shooting guards. They are: B.J. Boston, 6-foot-6 from Norcross (Ga.) High School and Josh Christopher, 6-4 from Mayfair High in Lakewood, Calif. Christopher is ranked No. 9, and Boston No. 19 in the recruiting Class of 2020 according to Rivals.com.

Let's block ads! (Why?)