Michael Porter Jr. went for 17 points on Friday as the USA Basketball Men’s U18 National Team easily defeated Brazil 88-48 in the semifinals of the 2016 FIBA Americas U18 Championship in Valdivia, Chile.
Trae Young added 11 points; and incoming Washington freshman Markelle Fultz finished with 10 points, 11 assists and six steals.
Porter Jr., who committed to Washington last Friday, has led the Americans in scoring in three of their four games. That follows 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.
The USA will take on also-undefeated Canada (4-0) in the championship at 8:15 p.m. (EDT) on July 23. All of the USA games will be live online at YouTube.com/FIBA.
Canada advanced after beating Puerto Rico (2-2) 83-66. Brazil and Puerto Rico will meet in the bronze medal game at 6 p.m. (EDT).
“I was really pleased with the second half,” said USA U18 and University of Texas head coach Shaka Smart. “Our guys showed really good energy to start the second half and throughout the second half when we put different lineups in the game. I thought in the first half we were a little bit sluggish, and guys were just kind of playing to the level of the opponent. We don’t want to do that. We want to play the best we can possibly play. I thought the second half was much more like that.”
The USA led 10-2 to start the game, but Brazil had cut it to three points 14-11, before Kevin Huerter (Shenendehowa Central H.S./Clifton Park, N.Y.) hit a 3-pointer to make it 17-11 with 2:16 left in the first quarter. After a made free throw from Hamidou Diallo (Putnam Science Academy/Corona, N.Y.) and three free throws from Brazil, the USA closed the period with another 3 from Huerter and a score from Jarrett Allen (St. Stephen’s Episcopal School/Round Rock, Texas) to make it 23-14 at the first break.
Brazil got no closer than within seven points in the second quarter, and the USA again finished the period strong, closing with six unanswered points to lead 40-26 at the midway point.
By halftime, Allen had scored all 14 of his points, Fultz (DeMatha Catholic H.S./Upper Marlboro, Md.) already had dished out seven assists and the USA had forced 19 turnovers out of Brazil.
With the USA leading 46-30 with 7:58 to go in the third quarter, Fultz sank a 3 that was the start of a 27-8 run to close the period that included three 3s from Porter Jr. (Father Tolton Catholic H.S./Columbia, Mo.) as well as 3s from Matt Coleman III (Oak Hill Academy/Norfolk, Va.), Quade Green (Newmann-Goretti H.S./Philadelphia, Pa.) and Young (Norman North H.S./Norman, Okla.), and the USA led 73-38 at the final quarter break.
“We did a good job defending, rebounding, and we had a lot of energy,” said Green, who dished out four of the USA’s 24 assists.
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