July 17, 1999
ALMADA, Portugal – Guard Matt Carroll, who will be a freshman at Notre Dame in the fall, scored six points and added a rebound and a steal in 14 minutes of action, as the 1999 USA Men’s Junior World Championship Team cruised past Egypt 96-53 to close out preliminary pool play in Almada, Portugal, Saturday night. The United States advances to the medal quarterfinals as the top seeded team from Group B and will face Argentina (2-1), the second seed from Group C, here on Monday night at 9:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. EST).
“The key to victory is to be able to defend the opposition, to limit them to one shot, and rebound the basketball. And that gives your team the chance to win ball games,” said USA and Arizona State University head coach Rob Evans. “We want to continue to get better. Every game we want to try and be better at some phases of the game. Tonight we were better in rebounding and we did a better job at defending drivers.
“We have some knowledge (of the upcoming competition). We saw Spain play today on television. We know there are a lot of good teams here, we’re familiar with Argentina, we’re familiar with Brazil, we know that the Russians, Croatians and all those teams are very good teams. And we will worry about them when we get to them, but there are a lot of good teams in this tournament,” added Evans.
During the first 20 minutes, the United States shot 47.2 percent (17-36 FGs) of its field goals, including 33.3 percent (4-12 3pt FGs) from beyond the arc, while Egypt managed to make good on 41.3 percent of its shots from the floor (12-29 FGs). But the USA, which earned 10 points on 13 trips to the charity stripe, capitalized on Egypt’s missed shots and 11 first half turnovers, scoring on 10 of its 14 fast break opportunities.
Opening the second half with a 14-6 spurt, the United States pulled away 65-35 with 14:45 remaining in the contest. The Americans went up by as many as 46 points, 86-40 at 6:36, before sailing in with the 96-53 decision.
For the second night in a row, the USA Junior Worlds record book was rewritten. Outrebounding Egypt 53-28, which included 26 offensive boards, the American’s total output tied the existing U.S. record set by the 1987 squad against Puerto Rico. In a testament to its teamwork, the U.S. passed off for a total of 16 assists and also forced 22 turnovers, while committing just 12 of its own.
Following the United States’ contest against Argentina on Monday night, it faces Brazil (2-1), the second seed from Group A, on July 20 at 7:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. EST), and closes out medal quarterfinals play against Russia (3-0), the top seed from Group D, on July 21 at 9:30 p.m. Also advancing to medal round play in Group I, and competing in Porto, are Australia (2-1), Croatia (3-0), Greece (2-1) and Spain (3-0), while the remaining teams will play in the classification rounds.