MONS, Belgium — The U.S. won its opener in the 2010 SHAPE International Basketball Tournament with a 95-59 victory Tuesday over Italy.
The Americans, who finished third last year in this tournament — now in its 47th year — were led by a pair of Air Force second lieutenants. Matt Holland finished with 18 points and Andrew Henke with 16. Coast Guard Lt.j.g. Craig Johnson added 15 points. Henke and Johnson also had eight rebounds apiece as the U.S. rallied from a four-point halftime deficit.
Next up for the Americans is an 8 p.m. game Wednesday against the United Kingdom, which loss 81-57 to Latvia on Tuesday. The U.S. and Latvia play Friday.
The loss was the second for the Italians in pool play. They fell to Latvia, 65-62, in the tourney’s opening game Monday.
In games in the other pool Tuesday, defending champion Lithuania outclassed Belgium 97-62, while France held off the Netherlands, 64-58.
The teams with the best record in each pool face off for the championship Saturday evening after the teams with the second-best records play for third. All games are in SHAPE’s main gym.
US Armed Forces (1-0) TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS## Player FG FGA FG FGA FT FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN-------------------------------------------------------------------------------9 HOLLAND, Matt....... f 6 11 2 6 4 6 2 3 5 3 18 2 1 1 1 228 JOHNSON, Craig...... c 6 8 0 0 3 4 3 5 8 2 15 1 1 1 1 2311 HENKE, Andrew....... g 5 14 4 11 2 4 1 7 8 3 16 2 2 1 3 265 BARTLEY, Ron........ g 1 5 1 3 4 4 1 2 3 1 7 10 3 0 3 267 RICHARD, Clevland... g 3 4 2 3 4 8 1 2 3 4 12 2 2 0 0 2010 NELSON, Marcus...... 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 0 4 0 0 2 1212 BREWER, Kenny....... 1 7 0 0 1 2 3 0 3 1 3 0 3 0 0 1314 SHEPPARD, Kirk...... 0 0 0 0 3 4 2 3 5 3 3 0 0 0 0 1415 JEFFERSON, Jason.... 3 6 0 0 1 2 3 3 6 0 7 0 0 0 1 164 NEWMAN, Brandon..... 2 7 1 3 5 6 0 1 1 2 10 1 2 0 2 136 ROBINSON, Antonio... 2 4 0 1 0 0 2 3 5 4 4 1 2 0 1 15 Totals.............. 29 67 10 27 27 40 18 30 48 25 95 23 16 3 14 200
TOTAL FG%: .433 DEADBALL3-Pt. FG%: .370 REBOUNDSF Throw %: .675 0
Date: Nov 30, 2010 Site: SHAPE Belgium Attendance: 167Officials: Lavene (FRA); Edward (NED); Vietors (LAT);Technical fouls: Italy-None. US Armed Forces-None.Score by Periods 1 2 3 4 TotalItaly............... 20 23 12 4 - 59US Armed Forces..... 24 15 38 18 - 95
