PORTLAND, Ore. – In the 19th Nike Hoop Summit, the United States blew out the World team 101-67 led by Terrance Ferguson’s game-high 21 points and Hoop Summit record of seven three-pointers.
The game turned quickly with the U.S. team opening the game on a 16-0 run and later the 34-point margin of victory set another Hoop Summit record.
“We came out today and played very well,” said U.S. head coach L.J. Goolsby. “If you look at the stat sheet they shot close to 16 percent from three and had 29 turnovers. Our whole motto this week was to come out and be very aggressive from the beginning and I think the guys did an excellent job today of doing that setting the tone early.”
After the game, uncommitted small forward Josh Jackson (7 points) said he would inform his family of his college decision on Monday and then Tweet out his decision. The 6-foot-8 Jackson out of Napa (CA) Prolific Prep is down to Kansas, Arizona and Michigan State.
Kentucky-bound point guard De’Aaron Fox and Duke-bound small forward Jayson Tatum (14 points) helped set that tone from the opening tip getting out in the passing lane and putting defensive pressure on the opposing guards. Early turnovers led to easy breakouts for the U.S. and it took the World team almost seven minutes to score their first basket which came on a dunk from future Kansas big man Udoka Azubuike.
In the second quarter, the World team cut the deficit to eight points, before Ferguson, an uncommitted 6-foot-7 wing, took over with an epic 3-point display. The uncommitted prospect from Advanced Prep International (TX) ended his high school career going 7-for-11 from three with six coming in a few minute span during the second quarter. The previous record of six was held by Xavier Henry (2009) and Casey Jacobson (1999).
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsTerrance Ferguson is on fire!!! ������
4 straight threes! @the2kferguson #HoopSummit https://t.co/FlyHeqDPQb – Nike Hoop Summit (@nikehoopsummit) April 9, 2016
“I had a hot hand and the players kept feeding me so I kept shooting,” said Ferguson, who is considering Arizona, Baylor, Kansas, Maryland, North Carolina and N.C. State and has no timetable on a decision. “I just have to put some hand in some ice to cool it down. I didn’t even want to touch the mic because it might catch on fire.”
A 22-point halftime lead continued to grow throughout the second half as fan favorite and local star Payton Pritchard (12 points) got into the action.
“We kind of destroyed them today, but it was fun playing with the guys and getting the W,” said Pritchard.
The 6-2 point guard from West Linn (OR) finished with 12 points on four three pointers and two assists. The local star is headed to Oregon next season and just capped off his high school basketball career by winning his fourth Oregon 6A state title.
Along with Ferguson and Pritchard who scored 21 and 12 points respectively, two other U.S. players finished with double-figures. Tatum scored 14 points on 4-of-8 shooting and Washington-bound guard Markelle Fultz scored 11 points to go with three assists.
After winning three out of the last four years, the World team was overmatched from the beginning.
“Obviously you have to commend them, they have a pretty unique roster, said World head coach Roy Rana. “Very athletic, very long.”
No players scored in double figures and shooting guard Wesley Silva led the team with nine points. DeAndre Ayton, Scout.com’s No. 1 player in the 2017 class struggled in his 26 minutes of action finishing with eight points and seven rebounds.
“They threw the first punch and we didn’t know how to get together and really execute our plays like we worked on in practice and just keep playing basketball,” said Ayton. “We broke down and you can see the results, we lost the game.”
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