Incoming Bruin Frosh Help USA To Win Over World

By Bruin Basketball Report

Box Score

Incoming Bruin big man, Drew Gordon scored 15 and grabbed 7 rebounds to help lead the USA Select basketball team to a 98-78 victory over the World Select team at the 11th Annual Nike Hoop Summit held at the Rose Garden in Portland.

Gordon demonstrated the type of athleticism and hustle he will bring to Westwood next season. Gordon added four blocks and seemingly was always around the action in his 18 minutes of play.

The USA roster included four players who are committed to play at UCLA next fall. The group included Gordon and guards Jrue Holiday, Malcolm Lee, and Jerime Anderson. Three of the Bruins, Gordon, Holiday, and Lee were in USA's starting line-up.

The World team managed to stay close for more than a half, thanks largely to an inside presence that featured 7'1 Alexis Ajinca of France and 7'4 Boban Marjanovic of Serbia. They helped to force the Americans to alter a number off inside shots and USA led only 43-42 early in the third quarter.

But the USA team had a quicker group of perimeter players, led by Holiday, Lee, and Anderson, and the Americans used it to their advantage by forcing the internationals into 10 third-quarter turnovers. That defensive play sparked an 11-0 run that gave USA a 54-42 lead with 6:10 left in the third. Holiday led the spurt with a three-pointer and an ally-oop dunk on a lob pass from Tyreke Evans.

"Our big men weren't quite as big as the other team," Drew Gordon said. "We battled hard in the post but the guards definitely stepped it up on offense and on defense to stop their pressure and set up our offense."

"I think our defense was the key to pulling away in the second half, especially our guards," Jrue Holiday said. "We picked up full-court, and applied a lot of pressure up top, trying to distract them and disrupt them."

Holiday finished with 11 points although he missed a number of lay-up opportunities in the first half. Teammate Malcolm Lee scored 3 points in 12 minutes action but his playing time was somewhat limited due to early foul trouble.

Although Jerime Anderson came off the bench for Team USA, he was clearly the best floor general in the game. The offense flowed better when he was at the point, in addition, his defense on the World team guards was stellar. Anderson finished with 4 points, 3 assists, and 3 steals in 15 minutes of action.

"When we play for the USA, it's all about the team," Andreson said. "It's all about playing and trying to get the win. Nobody is trying to get theirs; we're playing as a team. I felt that we did that really well today."