Seven players scored in double figures as the USA beat Canada, 109-67, to advance to the U19 World Championship semifinals in Prague.
In Saturday’s semifinals, the Americans will take on Lithuania, who beat China in the day’s first quarterfinal.
Marcus Smart had 14 points while Aaron Gordon, Jahlil Okafor and Michael Frazier had 12 each.
“I thought our guys got off to a pretty good start offensively, I just though defensively we had some breakdowns and loose balls that allowed them to stay close,” said USA and University of Florida head coach Billy Donovan.
“I really, really like the fact that things were not necessarily going well for our team and we kept battling though. I was really pleased with the way we started the second half.”
“I just went out and played,” said Smart, who shot 6-of-9 for the night and recorded his highest scoring output of the tournament to date. “(My points) just came to me in the flow of the game, I really wasn’t trying to force anything, if it was there I was taking it.”
Canada, who was playing without second-leading scorer and top rebounder Trey Lyles, out with a sprained ankle, was paced by Florida State commit Xavier Rathan-Mayes‘ 14 points.
Andrew Wiggins, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, is also out for Canada while he attends summer school at Kansas.
Syracuse’s Tyler Ennis had 11 points on 5-of-14 -shooting for Canada.
Team USA jumped ahead 24-14 in the first quarter before Canada fought back to make it 27-22. The Americans led 30-22 after one quarter.
Canada had the deficit down to seven points, 35-28, before the USA opened a 53-36 lead, which was 53-38 at the break.
Team USA broke the game wide open in the third quarter with a 15-2 run for a 73-44 cushion. Canada would not get closer than 27 points the rest of the game and no closer than 30 points in the fourth quarter.
