Team USA 115 vs. Egypt 60
LIEPAJA, Latvia - Tony Mitchell filled up the stat sheet as USA Basketball opened play at the 2011 U19 World Championships with a resounding 115-60 win over Egypt on Thursday.
The first North Texas player to ever represent the Mean Green on the international stage, Mitchell piled up seven points, 10 rebounds, four blocks and three assists in just 13 minutes. Mitchell's four blocks tie the USA Basketball single-game record.
The Americans scored the game's first 22 points, and shot 56.6 percent from the floor while holding Egypt to 28.8 percent.
"The young men focused on the things we wanted to focus on, defensively especially. I like the fact that we shared the basketball and we had a lot of guys get some good looks at the basket and make some shots," said USA U119 mentor Paul Hewitt (George Mason). "I was happy with our ball movement and I thought we defended well, but in particular ball movement and we made some threes. I think any team that wins this world championship is going to have shoot the ball well from the outside and that's usually keyed by good passing."
Team USA will take on Serbia on Friday and China on Saturday to round out group play. The top three finishing teams from each preliminary round pool will advance to the second round to form two groups of six teams.
Click here to visit the FIBA website for live stats and information about the U19 World Championships.
