Goodnight and welcome to a new ending for Spanish basketball, this time with the boys from the Under 17 against the United States at the Carpena in Malaga. Opposite will be the final boss, the one who usually ends the hope of gold. The team led by Javier Zamora will try the impossible, beat a team that seems to come from another galaxy. In the only previous meeting in a U17 World Cup, the Americans they won 95-66 ten years ago.
Spain has gone from less to bads in the tournament. The hosts started with a loss to Lithuania, and have since run five wins in a row. The last, against France in the semi-finals with a splendid partial of 22-5 in the last quarter. With this victory, the selection has secured its first medal in a U17 World Cup. To achieve the sixth, they must approach the version they showed in a friendly prior to the tournament against the Americans, when they were very close to achieving the crush (69-73).
The boys led by Sharman Lamar White have swept through the tournament, as the US team usually does in the U-17 World Cup. The Americans add six golds and a balance of 43-0. In addition, of those 43 wins only three were below twenty points. In this edition, Serbia was the team that ‘competed’ the most (89-62). As is often the case with Team USA, taking care of losses and the defensive transition will be key to containing the flow of points (they average more than one hundred per game).
Players to watch: Candidate Mara (Casademont Zaragoza) and its 220 centimeters in height monopolizes the spotlights in Spain, escorted by a short rotation where they also stand out Be Almansa (Academia Overtime Elite) o Hugo Gonzalez (Real Madrid). In Team USA the top scorer is the forward Ian Jackson (19.4 points per game), followed by shooting guard Karter Knox (11,5).
