The USA improved to 3-0 at the FIBA U19 Cup in Cairo, Egypt with a 98-65 rout of Italy on July 4th.
Kentucky’s PJ Washington dropped a game-high 20 points, while uncommitted senior Cam Reddish added 15 and UNLV’s Brandon McCoy finished with 13 points.
“I thought Italy played great, they hit a lot of shots at the beginning and that forces us to bounce back and play some defense more so than the first two games,” said Washington, who after three games leads the USA scoring averaging at 14.7 point per game while adding 5.0 rebounds and 2.3 assists a game. “I was just trying to get to the rack, just trying to be aggressive, just playing my game and I felt like it was working for me tonight.”
The Americans have won their first three games — over Iran, Angola and Italy — by a combined 134 points. They will next play Mali on Wednesday in the Round of 16 with the time TBD.
“PJ’s (Washington) a beast and I don’t know how you guard him,” said USA and University of Kentucky coach John Calipari. “If he gets an angle by you, he’s tough to stop. And he made his free throws today. He’s playing the way we need him to play.”
Meantime, Canada beat Japan, 100-75, behind a combined 41 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists from Lindell Wigginton and R.J. Barrett.
Wigginton led the way with 21 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists while Barrett added 20 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.
