World University Games 2011 -- USA Over Israel, Undefeated in Group D Play

USA 94-84 Israel
Team USA ended their Group D competition by defeating Israel 94-84, finishing with a 5-0 record. Team Israel gave Team USA it's best competition to date, outpointing the American by six in their second quarter -- the first quarter lost by Team USA in the competition -- taking a two point, 43-41 lead into half-time. Coach Matt Painter's squad responded with an explosive third quarter, outscoring the Israelis by 10, 29-19, to take an eight point lead, 70-62, into the last quarter. They added another two points to the margin to secure their sixth consecutive double-digit winning margin in the WUG Tournament.

Tied six times in the second and (first five minutes of...) the third quarter, the teams were not separated by more than four points through that 15 minute stretch. Team USA broke on top with an 8-2 run in the last 2:30 of the third quarter, fueled by buckets and free throws contributed by JayMychal Green (a field goal and two free throws), Marcus Denmon (a layup) and Tim Abromaitis (a layup). A Darius Miller jumper 15 seconds into the fourth quarter pushed the USA lead out to 10, and the Americans were not seriously challenged again. The score by quarters...

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	Game
USA	27	14	29	24	94
Israel	23	20	19	22	84

Israeli forward Anton Shoutvin logged a game-high 20 points on 7-13 (0-1, 7-12) shooting from the floor and 6-9 from the line. For the second consecutive game Alabama's rising senior J Green led Team USA scorers with 16 points on 5-9 (0-0, 5-9) from the field and 6-9 from the line. Trevor Mbakwe recorded a double-double, scoring 12 points to go with a game-high 13 (5-8-13) rebounds. Two other squad members Denmon (13 points) and John Jenkins (12 points), scored more than 10 points. JayMychal Green collected seven carooms. The Israelis' Shoutvin grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.

The possession-based breakdown...

						FTA
Team	Pace	Eff.	eFG%	TOV	OR%	FGA	Ast%	PPWS
Team USA	81.6	1.13	55.6	19.6	44.2	35.2	22.2	1.13
Team Israel		1.03	51.7	24.5	29.7	46.7	37.9	1.15

Unlike the first five games (and a predictor of the games to come?) the USA coaching staff used 11 of the 12 players available, even as the playing time was the least evenly distributed of any prior game. The starters, Scoop Jardine, Jenkins, Orlando Johnson, Miller and Mbakwe played for a combined 49% of the available playing time, with four of the starters averaging 20.8 minutes.

Next
With the #1 seed in Group D, Team USA will meet #2 seed Lithuania from Group C in the quarter final rounds on Saturday at 3:30 am (Eastern DST) in Shenzhen University Main Gym.

Further Reading
USA Basketball posted a game recap on their website, along with a box score and post game quotes.