University of Tennessee Athletics
USA U19 Rolls Through Argentina
July 23, 2011 | Women's Basketball
July 23, 2011
PUERTO MONTT, Chile-- Utilizing a well-balanced scoring effort, the 2011 USA Basketball Women's U19 World Championship Team (3-0) ran away with a 83-49 victory over South American rival Argentina (0-3) on Saturday afternoon at the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship in Puerto Montt, Chile.
The U.S. advances as the top seed out of Group B, along with Japan (1-1) and Russia (1-1) and will face the top three finishing teams out of Group A to form Group E in the July 25-27 second round.
Incoming Lady Vols and U19 starters Cierra Burdick and Ariel Massengale continued to contribute to the winning ways of the USA team. Burdick ruled the boards with 10 rebounds and added eight points, three assists and a couple of steals in 15 minutes while Massengale matched five points with five rebounds.
Burdick's board play against Argentina was a key for the USA squad. "I'm definitely just trying to play my game and do the best that I can to make sure that I am putting the effort forth to make sure my team is successful. My teammates and my coaches obviously have faith in me to allow me to start. So, I'm just trying to make the best out of it and help my team get victories."
Eleven of the USA's players scored and notched at least five points against Argentina.
"We have all 12 players available and ready," said Jennifer Rizzotti, USA U19 World Championship Team head coach. "They all play double-digit minutes, and I think that's one of the advantages that we have over a lot of teams. We have a lot of depth on our bench and we have a lot of good players who can play. I felt that we had a chance to really give people the opportunity to play today and rest some of our starters.
Trailing for just 3:02 of the game, the USA was down 7-3 early on. However, defensive pressure, no let-up from substitutions and the USA's fast-paced game offensive game wore down the Argentines.
Behind the scoring of seven different players, the U.S. reeled off 16 unanswered points to take command of the game 19-7 with 2:51 to play in the first quarter. By the time the first buzzer sounded, the U.S. was up 26-11.
Argentina cut the game to single digits with a pair of quick threes at the start of the second quarter, but any comeback attempt was short lived. Following an Argentine bucket at 7:18, the USA's lead was 30-19. However, that was close as the game would get for the remainder of the contest.
More Q&A with Cierra Burdick (Butler High School/Matthews, N.C.)
On her play in the tournament: "I'm definitely just trying to play my game and do the best that I can to make sure that I am putting the effort forth to make sure my team is successful. My teammates and my coaches obviously have faith in me to allow me to start. So, I'm just trying to make the best out of it and help my team get victories."
Coach Rizzotti said that all 12 players can contribute. Can you play extra minutes if needed? "Yes, we're all in really good shape. We trained at altitude, where it's really hard to breathe. It's great to have a long bench, but if need be we have players who can go long minutes."
Foul trouble has been an issue, do you think this will be a problem? "We have so many different aspects to our team. We have people who can handle the ball and people can do multiple things. So if someone was to get in foul trouble, we always have somebody who can come in for them."
Are you ready for the physicality of the rest of the tournament? "Of course. When we come overseas, we know there's going to be a lot of physical play. A lot of countries really like to play physical. We love it. We really do. There are some extremely fast guards out here and we just have to keep defending and rotating and we'll be great."
Who would you like to face if you get to the finals? Canada, maybe? "We played Canada in the 18-and-under qualifying championship, so that would be a rematch for them, but I'm just willing to face anybody who's ready to play us. If it's France, or if it's Australia, they're looking pretty good right about now. We'll see what happens."
What did you get out of the first three games and what do you need to work on moving forward? "From pool play, you can see a dramatic difference in our defense, the rotation and our aggressiveness and willing to work on the defensive end. We just have to continue to get better on the defensive end and then as we progress into the tournament, get better executing as well."
