United States 84-69 Hong Kong
What an ugly final game to the group but we came out with a win! I personally had to stop watching because I could not stand watching us continuously foul and turn the ball over, but as soon as the 4th quarter hit the team took off running and did not look back. We held them to 18-80 shooting, but one of their guys shot 7-13 so if you take that one player away they shot a total of 11-67. Just a completely dominant defensive performance, if it wasn't for all the fouling and FTs they made, this game would not have been even remotely close. Ransom did not shoot very well overall, but was instrumental to the 4th quarter beatdown we handed out. He was repeatedly grabbing rebounds, where he actually ended up tying the team lead at 14 with Penn. Despite the ugliness it is nice to come out on top.
And that does it for the first group! We finish 5-0 and will go into our next group with a 3-0 record. Our opponents will be Italy, Poland, Lithuania and Argentina for the next 4 weeks, but I am unsure who we will play first as the schedule has not yet released. Moving on undefeated puts us in a great spot looking ahead, and we are excited to keep pushing towards the playoffs.
Lets keep the success going!
Go USA!