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Nation of Domination: Randle, Team USA capture FIBA Americas gold
BY Matt Welch, mwelch@starlocalnews.com
Prestonwood Christian Academy senior Julius Randle saved his best for last in the FIBA Americas U18 Championship gold medal game Wednesday.
The Lions forward paced a second half that helped the USA Basketball Men's U18 National Team distance itself from Brazil en route to an 81-56 drubbing from Sao Sebastiao de Paraiso, Brazil, and the country's sixth gold medal in U18 competition.
"After long practices, two-a-days, everything we did," Randle said, "to finally see it all come and pay off was just an amazing experience."
Randle, who mustered only four points and one rebound over the first two quarters, assured that margin didn't stay close for long.
The U.S. proceeded to outscore Brazil, 44-25, in the second half with the Prestonwood product sparking the charge. Opening the third quarter with a jumper, Randle took off from there in amassing 14 of his team-high 18 points and 11 of his team-high 12 rebounds in the second half.
"We weren't really playing our game in the first half, so I wanted to lock in and bring energy to the team, bring leadership to the team," Randle said. "And in the second half I just really wanted to focus in and be aggressive on both ends, and on the defensive and offensive glass."
The Brazilians had no counter, finishing the contest shooting 37 percent and failing to match the depth of the Americans, where 11-of-12 players scored.
It was that same depth that commandeered an unbeaten run through FIBA play, upping Team USA's overall record to 43-2 in the worldwide tournament.
"This is everybody's gold no matter the circumstances," Randle said. "Whether you were playing or not, getting shots, everybody's goal was to just get the gold medal. So we all put our egos to the side and we were really a team; we really bonded throughout the time we were together and that showed on the court as well."
Playing time was evenly spread throughout the lineup with starters to reserves averaging 16-22 minutes over the one-week stay in Brazil.
Regardless of personnel, the score remained the same with the U.S. outscoring its opposition by an average of 38.6 points over its five games. The team's closest margin came in a 19-point victory in the first go-around against Brazil, with the remainder of pool play consisting of a 105-42 decision over U.S. Virgin Islands last Saturday and a 110-59 pasting of Mexico last Sunday.
It set up an equally-decisive 107-72 win over Argentina in the semifinals to land the U.S. in the gold medal matchup.
Randle, ranked as the nation's No. 2 player for the Class of 2013 by ESPN, played to his paper along the way as well. Starting all five games, Randle led Team USA in scoring (14.2) on 55 percent shooting, rebounds (6.6) and blocks (5 total).
"[Winning the tournament] means a lot," Randle said. "We went through a lot of wars with these guys and a lot of hard times in practices and stuff like that, so yeah, it means a lot to win the gold. This was a tough game, but we all locked in and focused in and we weren't going to lose this game.
"Seeing the team do that not only gave me motivation, it gave everybody motivation; it was great."
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