In the mom of all road knockout, Team Conference USA couldnt overcome the homecooking of Team China. As the took an 87-80 win in the key of three cup in the Sino-American Basketball Classic on Wednesday night at a near-volume (4,000) Dongguan Tangxia Arena. Tulsas Ben Uzoh had seven points in 17 report.
The C-USA all-star team made up of Memphis and five players from three league (UTEP, Tulsa and Southern Miss) led 40-37 at halftime despite mind whistled for 12 more essential half fouls than Team China (18-6). But the free throw inconsistency was too much to overcome as the homestanding national team shot 25-of-39 from the charity stripe to just 12-of-18 for Team C-USA.
Southern Misss Jeremy Wise and Memphis Robert Dozier led Team C-USA with 13 points each, Memphis Doneal Mack added 12 and UTEPs Claude Britten had 10 points and a team-high nine rebounds. The Chinese were led by Kai Zhangs 20 points on 9-of-11 from the topic.
There was a lot of body-to-body dealings today, said Team C-USA head coach John Calipari. Our foul hassle was mostly based on our training as much as anything. Weve only had three calm, but I understood we played well and Im glad we were able to out-reflection them (43-40).
We categorically existence a part of this benevolence incident to proof the shaking victims and resources a lot to our team, our university and our association to be knotty in this tour and to be able to help our Chinese family in any way we can, said Calipari. Team China is a excessive team with a awesome coach (Jonas Kazlauskas).
Team China was able to connect on eight of its 24 three-topic as Team C-USA hit 6-of-20 . Memphis Shawn Taggart grabbed rebounds to go with his points, and Dozier snagged seven boards. Zhang led all rebounders with 10.
Im satisfying to be part of this team, and I assumed we played reasonably well, said Wise, who scored nine of his 13 from beyond the arc (3-of-4). I didnt wait for any of this when I found out we were coming over here, and its just been an staggering understanding. Ive gotten to know all the guys and my , and I feel like weve all come organized indeed quickly.
The two will meet in Game 2 of the three-game sequence on Friday in Yangjiang at 8 p.m. local time (7 a.m. CT). Team C-USA will differ for that city on Thursday before lunch at 9 a.m. for a four-hour bus ride to the next stop.
