July 22, 1999
ALMADA, Portugal – Behind point guard Keyon Dooling’s 18 points and four steals, the 1999 USA Men’s Junior World Championship Team (6-0) pulled away from Russia in the second half to secure the 84-70 victory and a berth in the medal semifinals of the FIBA Junior World Championship in Almada, Portugal, Wednesday night. Matt Carroll, who will be a freshman at Notre Dame in the fall, played three minutes and scored two points.
With the win, the United States advances into the semifinals at the top of Group II with a 3-0 quarterfinals round record and faces Croatia (5-1), second place finishers in Group I, in Lisbon on Saturday, July 24, at 7:00 p.m. (1:00 p.m. EST). Competing in the second medal semifinal match up are Spain and Argentina. The winners of the two semifinal games earn the right to play for the gold medal, while the losers will compete for the bronze medal on Sunday, July 25 at 7:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. (11:00 a.m. EST), respectively.
“I’m really proud of the guys tonight,” said USA and Arizona State University head coach Rob Evans. “In the second half they got after it defensively and made a lot of stops and got some easy baskets off of turnovers. We talked during the half that we had to step up our defense some because they had shot 50 percent on us in the first half and we’re a better defensive team than that.”
Despite having its lowest shooting output of the tournament, 45.9 percent (28-61 FGs), the United States closed the night with its highest shooting percentage through six games from beyond the arc with 43.8 percent (7-16 3pt FGs), while limiting Russia to 41.5 percent (22-53 FGs) of its shots from the field and 27.3 percent (3-11 3pt FGs) from three-point. Additionally, after allowing Russia to shoot 50 percent (13-26 FGs) in the first half, the USA’s defense limited its opponents to a frigid 33.3 percent (9-27 FGs) in the second half. The Americans outrebounded the Russians by a 41-27 margin.