Kentucky’s PJ Washington gets ‘a little bit aggressive,’ powers U.S. into World Cup quarterfinals

Possessing too much athleticism, too much depth and too much scoring power, the United States won its round-of-16 game against Mali, 117-69, on Wednesday in the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup in Cairo, Egypt.

The Americans, in pursuit of their third straight U19 championship, improved to 4-0 in the tournament, playing for Kentucky coach John Calipari. Team USA advanced to Friday’s quarterfinals where it will take on Germany (3-1) at 3:15 p.m. Germany advanced with a 72-65 victory Wednesday over New Zealand and UK player Tai Wynyard.

For the second consecutive game, incoming UK freshman PJ Washington paced the U.S. with 20 points.

“I just felt like I had to be a little bit aggressive.” said Washington, who also contributed eight rebounds and three assists. “I felt like I could get by my man every time, so I just tried to do that and make plays for my team.”

UK freshman Hamidou Diallo bounced back from a tough game Tuesday by scoring 14 points on Wednesday for the U.S.

“We’re playing kind of with units,” Calipari said. “When we started the game that group didn’t have the intensity or fight, they were just playing. Well, Mali plays really hard. They’ve got a couple of really good players and then after that they’re not as good. But, they play hard so they can make you look bad. So, then we went to the other group and that group went in and played out of their minds, so I left them in. They got us up 20, so they stayed in.

“But then in the second half that group that I started played well and so I left them in. I’m not sure I want to play groups like this, but they are getting to learn to play together pretty well and maybe it’s six or seven in a group, then I play the other guys and see how they are and give them some minutes.”

In addition to Washington and Diallo, five U.S. players scored in double figures. Brandon McCoy (UNLV) had 19 points and 13 rebounds. High schoolers Louis King and Cameron Reddish and Oregon’s Payton Pritchard had 11 points apiece. Purdue’s Carsen Edwards added 10.

The U.S. never trailed but the score was tight early. The U.S. put together a 17-1 run to close the first quarter, extending a 13-9 lead to 30-10. At halftime it was 50-31.

“I feel like when we want to play defense we can lock down anybody for a number of possessions in a row and I felt like we did that a little bit tonight,” Washington said. “We’ve got to show that every time down.”

Mali tightened the score to 56-44 in the third quarter, but the U.S. had too much firepower. Pouring in 41 points in the final 10 minutes, the USA pulled away.

See highlights of Wednesday’s game below:

Wynyard’s New Zealand bows out

UK sophomore Tai Wynyard led New Zealand with 14 points and nine rebounds, but Germany won 72-65.

New Zealand was eliminated from medal contention but will continue play in the consolation bracket, facing Mali on Friday.

See highlights of Wednesday’s game below:

This story was originally published July 5, 2017 at 8:53 AM with the headline "Kentucky’s PJ Washington gets ‘a little bit aggressive,’ powers U.S. into World Cup quarterfinals."