If the United States of America thought the road to a third-straight FIBA U17 World Championship title was going to be easy, they quickly learned they’re going to get every team’s best effort as they saw with Greece in their 83-73 win at the Al Ahli Arena last night.
The 10-point win was the narrowest margin of victory for the US in the U17 World Championship since their first game in the inaugural event in 2010 – an 82-70 triumph over Argentina.
The basketball powerhouse had their hands full keeping the stubborn Greeks at bay.
While Greece never seriously threatened to take the lead in the second half, the Americans had to close out the game with a wire-to-wire finish.
“I think sometimes you want to just get by the first game and take a look at some of the things you need to work on,” said US coach Donald Showalter.
Diamond Stone, who finished as the team’s top scorer, later admitted: “Today we came out thinking we were going to blow this team out and it wasn’t that easy.
“Now we have that chip on our shoulder so we’re going to bring it to the rest of the games,” added Stone.
Stone was the anchor for the US in the paint, posting a game-high 22 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks.
He set the tone for the team, who constantly forced the issue near the basket – what Showalter called their “bread and butter” – to finish with 46 points in the paint.
“We just came out of the gate and attacked the rim,” Stone said. “Coach told us not to settle for jump shots so we took that into consideration and started attacking the rim and it started increasing the lead.”
Though Greece came up short, it was an encouraging performance as it was their first game with their entire roster. Four players recently returned from the U18 European Championship where they helped the country qualify for next summer’s U19 World Championship.
“It’s our first time playing with these guys on this team,” said centre Giorgios Papagianni, who scored 17 points and grabbed a game-high 11 boards.
“We had a good effort during the game and we’re trying to have a balance but something went wrong.
“We’re going to see how it unfolds and what we did wrong and adjust for next game."
If anything, the early test could be an advantage for the already formidable defending champions to give them a better idea of what to expect the rest of the tournament.
“Every game we’re going to get their best,” said Stone. “We’re USA so every game is going to be a grind. I think we just need to overcome that.”
Showalter added: “We’re the team everybody shoots to play well against and we’re going to get everyone’s A-game. We got Greece’s A-game. Give a lot of credit to Greece, we could meet them again down the road.”