Las Vegas, Nevada and Panama City, Panama • September14-17, 2018

The USA opened the World Cup Qulifying second round with a pair of impressive victories, defeating Uruguay 114-57 in a home contest, then going on the road to defeat Panama 78-48.

With USA Men’s National Team head coach Gregg Popovich in attendance, the USA  dominated Uruguay 114-57 to open second-round play at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas on Sept. 14, 2018.

As the starting floor general for USA, Frank Mason III  led USA with 16 points and eight assists. Playing cool, calm, and collective, Mason never forced the issue and kept Uruguay on their heels whenever he was on the court. Additionally, Mason broke the USA World Cup Qualifiers records of eight assists and shooting 7-of-8 from the field. 

Chasson Randle tallied 15 points on 3-of-5 from 3 in 23 minutes. Derrick White contributed 14 points in front of Popovich and Spurs assistant coach Ime Udoka. Dwayne Bacon and Henry Ellenson both chipped in 10 points each.

USA played superb defense from the start, forcing 18 turnovers, compared to only eight for the red, white, and blue. 

Sharing the ball was a constant theme throughout, for the home team. USA dished out 30 assists, while Uruguay finished with 12. USA mentor Jeff Van Gundy was pleased with how the team played as a unit, instead of trying to pile up individual numbers. 

“I thought we moved the ball well. I thought Frank (Mason) got into the teeth of the defense exceptionally well. And we shared it. FIBA is not about putting up numbers, this is about getting connected to one another in a short period of time and enjoying the competition, forming a brotherhood. And I think if you can do that, you’ll share the ball, you’ll help on defense, and you’ll do all those things to help you win,” said Van Gundy. 

As if foreshadowing the rest of the night, the first play commenced with two offensive rebounds for USA, followed by a Mason put-back to open the game.  

USA outrebounded Uruguay 45 to 27, and had a 24-6 edge in points generated from turnovers. Moreover, USA finished with a commanding 18-2 lead on fast break points.  

The game was never really close. USA jumped out to a 22-7 lead with two minutes to go in the first quarter. Randle capped the first quarter with a 3 to push the score to 28-8. With the score 56-24 at halftime, the second half was essentially for USA to work on their sets, and for Uruguay to play for pride. 

Uruguay came in with the game plan to push the pace whenever they had the opportunity. But to no avail, USA was bigger, stronger, faster both physically and mentally, and Uruguay never stood a chance.  

Van Gundy stressed multiple times how Uruguay didn’t play their best guys for this game because of their harsh travel schedule.  

“So much of it was they were undermanned too. We did a lot of good things, and they were undermanned because they chose to rest their players back home.” 

Uruguay as a team shot a meager 18-of-55 from the field, and a staggering 4-of-22 from the perimeter. 

“I think our greatest strength is our depth,” said Van Gundy.  “Again, we’ve pretty much done this throughout. We play 10 or 11 guys, anywhere from 10 or 11 minutes up to the low 20’s. We try to take advantage of our depth."

Although the USA shot just 33.3 percent (6-18 FGs) from the field in the first quarter, the Americans’ defense frustrated Panama into 2-of-12 shooting (16.7 percent) and forced five turnovers as the USA led 18-7 after the first 10 minutes.