July 16, 1999

ALMADA, Portugal – Guard Matt Carroll, who will be a freshman on the University of Notre Dame basketball team in 1999-2000, scored eight points and had two steals as the 1999 USA Men’s Junior World Championship Team earned a 119-59 victory over China to open the 1999 FIBA Men’s Junior World Championship in Almada, Portugal Thursday night.The United States faces Greece, which downed Egypt 106-66 earlier in the evening, on Friday at 9:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. EST) and closes out preliminary round pool play against Egypt on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. EST).

“Our guys came out to set the tone early in the ball game on the defensive end of the floor, which allowed us to get some easy baskets, we got a lot of transition baskets. I think that’s where the game was really won early on,” said USA and Arizona State University head coach Rob Evans.

“We did a great job of rebounding the basket on both ends of the floor, especially on the offensive end of the floor and I thought that our guys did a really nice job of playing team basketball, moving the basketball, finding the open man and getting the basketball to him.”

The United States scored the game’s first six points and behind nine points from the University of Arizona’s Michael Wright, ran out to a 21-7 lead at 14:11. Following a two-point bucket by China, the Americans reeled off 26 unanswered points to take full control of the contest 47-9 with 7:52 left to play in the first half.

After shooting a sparkling 74.4 percent (29-39 FGs) of its field goals in the first half, the United States closed out the game shooting a stellar 67.6 percent (50-74 FGs) from the floor, while its defense limited China to a frigid 26.1 percent (6-23 FGs) in the first half and 40.0 percent (20-50 FGs) on the game. The USA notched 21 steals, forcing 24 China turnovers, and scored on 22 of its 23 fast break opportunities. The Americans, which grabbed 13 offensive boards, more than doubled its opponents’ rebounding efforts, 38-16.

1999 FIBA Men's Junior World Championship
--------------------------------------------------------------VISITORS: China Men's Jr. World Championship Team (0-1)                                    
No.     N A M E           FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP A TO BLK S MIN6  Yue Pengfei             4  4   3  3   2  2   0  1  1   0  13 0  1  0  0  297  Wang Bo                 4  8   0  0   4  4   2  1  3   3  12 5  3  0  1  318  Liu Wei                 0  6   0  2   4  5   0  1  1   1   4 2  3  0  1  2311 Jiau Jian               2  7   0  0   3  4   0  1  1   1   7 1  5  0  1  3013 Mo Ke                   1  2   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   4   2 0  0  0  0   94  Lin Li                  4  7   2  4   0  0   0  1  1   3  10 3  3  0  0  255  Li Ke                   0  1   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   2   0 0  1  0  0   610 Yan Yufeng              0  1   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   0   0 0  1  0  0   612 Tang Lun                0  2   0  1   0  0   0  0  0   0   0 0  0  0  0   614 Jia Xiau Zhong          5 11   0  0   1  2   1  3  4   2  11 0  3  0  3  2515 Li Dong Liang           0  1   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   1   0 0  3  0  0  10TEAM ........................................   2  3  5   1TOTALS                    20 50   5 10  14 17   5 11 16  17  59 11 24  0  6 200

TOTAL FG% 1st: 6-23 (.261%)  2nd: 14-27 (.519%)  Game: 20-50 (.400%)   DEADBALL3-Pt. FG% 1st: 1- 3 (.333%)  2nd:  4- 7 (.571%)  Game:  5-10 (.500%)   REBOUNDSF Throw % 1st: 7- 8 (.875%)  2nd:  7- 9 (.778%)  Game: 14-17 (.824%)      2
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HOME TEAM: USA Men's Jr. World Championship Team (1-0)                                     
No.     N A M E           FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP A TO BLK S MIN5  Keyon Dooling           4  4   0  0   0  0   0  0  0   2   8 2  1  0  3  149  Steve Lepore            2  5   1  4   0  0   0  1  1   1   5 0  0  0  1  1310 Chris Williams          7  8   1  2   3  3   2  4  6   0  18 3  0  2  1  1912 Nick Collison           4  6   0  1   1  2   2  3  5   0   9 2  1  1  3  1615 Michael Wright          5  5   0  0   5  6   1  2  3   1  15 0  1  0  0  124  Steve Logan             2  6   1  4   0  0   1  3  4   3   5 4  2  0  4  226  Adam Hall               4  6   0  2   0  1   0  2  2   2   8 2  0  0  2  177  Matt Carroll            3  6   1  2   1  2   0  0  0   1   8 0  0  0  2  158  Casey Jacobsen          7  8   2  3   1  2   2  3  5   1  17 0  1  0  2  2511 Bobby Simmons           4  7   0  1   2  2   3  2  5   1  10 1  1  0  3  1413 Jason Parker            4  6   0  0   0  0   2  2  4   1   8 1  2  0  0  1414 Lance Williams          4  7   0  0   0  0   0  2  2   2   8 0  2  0  0  19TEAM ........................................   0  1  1
TOTALS                    50 74   6 19  13 18  13 25 38  15 119 15 11  3 21 200

TOTAL FG% 1st: 29-39 (.744%)  2nd: 21-35 (.600%)  Game: 50-74 (.676%)   DEADBALL3-Pt. FG% 1st:  4-11 (.364%)  2nd:  2- 8 (.250%)  Game:  6-19 (.316%)   REBOUNDSF Throw % 1st:  9-12 (.750%)  2nd:  4- 6 (.667%)  Game: 13-18 (.722%)      4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------OFFICIALS:   Jose Araujo (POR), Scott Butler (AUS)TECHNICAL FOULS: NoneATTENDANCE:
SCORE BY PERIODS:                1st  2nd  TOTALChina Men's Jr. World Champ.      20   39    59USA Men's Jr. World Champ.        71   48   119