Michael Porter Jr., P.J. Washington and Hamidou Diallo combined for 53 points on Wednesday as the USA Basketball Men’s U18 National Team easily defeated the U.S. Virgin Islands 107-63 in the 2016 FIBA Americas U18 Championship in Valdivia, Chile.
Porter Jr., who committed to Washington last Friday, scored 20 points for the second straight day and now has 73 points in his last three official games — including a 33-point outburst on July 10 when he led MoKan Elite to the Peach Jam championship in front of Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar and the entire staff.
Washington added 19 points and Diallo had 14. Both players are uncommitted in the Class of 2017.
Incoming Washington freshman wing Markelle Fultz added 11 points and 4 assists, incoming Texas big man Jarrett Allen collected 10 rebounds to go with seven points and four assists and Trae Young dished out seven assists.
“I thought our guys did some good things,” said USA U18 and University of Texas head coach Shaka Smart. “I really thought we played well together, in terms of passing the basketball – 35 assists. We did a nice job against their zone of finding open pockets and making the extra pass. I thought that first group of five guys really set the tone by playing unselfishly, and then in the second half, that group did a terrific job on the defensive end. For parts of the game, we let them get loose from outside. They shot 44 3s, so they are going make some of them, but we need to do a better job of contesting.”
