The much-favoured USA men’s basketball team completed their Rio 2016 preparations with a convincing 110-66 victory over Nigeria in Houston on Monday.
For the Americans, New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony led the rout with 19 points, with Klay Thompson bagging 17 points and DeMar DeRozan also getting in on the action with an impressive 13 points in just 22 minutes.
For Nigeria, Chamberlain Oguchi was the best of the bunch with 21 points, having sunk all four of Nigeria's three-pointers. Yesterday’s news was all about Blazers forward Al-Farouq Aminu withdrawing from the squad, but his brother, Alade Aminu, put in a good shift with 13 points while Ike Diogu and Ben Uzoh each bagged 10 points.
Reflecting on the match, Nigeria coach Will Voigt conceded that his African champions, ranked 25th in the world, were picked apart by the top-ranked Americans, who are favourites for gold in Rio.
"It's hard because they're so good in transition,” Voigt said. “It seemed like all of those three-point misses kind of led to their leak outs and as we know when they can get into an open court they kind of feed off of that."
After an unbeaten exhibition tour, team USA will now head to Brazil confident of Olympic glory, and face China in their first game on August 6th.
"We leave tomorrow night and then it's off, hopefully, to a gold medal," US coach Mike Krzyzewski concluded.
USA thump Nigeria in final pre-Olympics friendly
The much-favoured USA men’s basketball team completed their Rio 2016 preparations with a convincing 110-66 victory over Nigeria in Houston on Monday.
For the Americans, New York Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony led the rout with 19 points, with Klay Thompson bagging 17 points and DeMar DeRozan also getting in on the action with an impressive 13 points in just 22 minutes.
For Nigeria, Chamberlain Oguchi was the best of the bunch with 21 points, having sunk all four of Nigeria's three-pointers. Yesterday’s news was all about Blazers forward Al-Farouq Aminu withdrawing from the squad, but his brother, Alade Aminu, put in a good shift with 13 points while Ike Diogu and Ben Uzoh each bagged 10 points.
Reflecting on the match, Nigeria coach Will Voigt conceded that his African champions, ranked 25th in the world, were picked apart by the top-ranked Americans, who are favourites for gold in Rio.
"It's hard because they're so good in transition,” Voigt said. “It seemed like all of those three-point misses kind of led to their leak outs and as we know when they can get into an open court they kind of feed off of that."
After an unbeaten exhibition tour, team USA will now head to Brazil confident of Olympic glory, and face China in their first game on August 6th.
"We leave tomorrow night and then it's off, hopefully, to a gold medal," US coach Mike Krzyzewski concluded.