Aug. 9, 2005

MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina - On Tuesday evening in preliminary play, the 2005 USA U21 World Championship Team defeated Nigeria 113-78. The victory improved the team's record to 4-0 in preliminary round action, and ensured the U.S. a first-place finish in its pool. The squad's final game in the preliminary round will be against Slovenia on Wednesday at 12:45 p.m. EST.

Villanova guard Allan Ray (Bronx, N.Y.) scored seven points for the U.S. and added three assists, two steals and two rebounds. In 14 minutes on the floor, Ray connected on 3-of-5 shots from the floor, including 1-of-2 three-point attempts. Earlier in the week, Ray scored 20 points to lead the U.S. to a 94-79 triumph over Puerto Rico.

"I thought that after having a day off and trying to get our energy back, we changed our lineup, tried to do some different things," said USA and Saint Joseph's University (Pa.) head coach Phil Martelli. "We really appreciated the effort that the Nigerian team gave and I felt that we did a really good job of spreading around the opportunities that weren't available in the Puerto Rico game.

"The thing I've been impressed by with these guys is there's no entitlement. There's no, `I'm a starter and he's not.' Or `I should get shots and he shouldn't.' There's none of that. There's been an awful lot of sharing. Tonight was obviously an opportunity to play against ourselves, not really to play against Nigeria. I thought we did a nice job of things, with J.J. (Redick) getting going and Nick Fazekas to have a double-double after he didn't play much against Puerto Rico. I'm very conscious of the psychology of keeping this team together."

Coach Martelli switched things up from the start with a fresh starting five that wasted no time getting things going. Terrence Roberts (Syracuse / Jersey City, N.J.) won the opening tip and five seconds into the game Redick hit his first three. From there the starters ran out to a 17-6 lead and by the end of the first quarter the USA was on top 29-18, despite five first quarter turnovers that mostly came from bad passes straight into Nigeria's hands.

With 7:35 to go before half the U.S. was still on top by 11 points, 33-22. Tightening up its defensive pressure, while also making crisper passes that were right on target, the USA took off on a 12-0 run that saw four different players score and at 3:54 the lead had ballooned to 45-22. By halftime the Americans were up 53-34 behind 10 points from Rajon Rondo (Kentucky / Louisville, Ky.), who finished with 19, and eight points and seven rebounds by Nick Fazekas (Nevada / Arvada, Colo.), who notched the game's sole double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds.

"I felt I played real well, I just couldn't get the long ball to go down," said Fazekas, who also had three blocks. "But that's no big deal. I felt like I actually went out there and contributed to a win tonight. That's the positive thing for me is that I helped contribute to a win and I went out there and helped my team."