USA ease to U18 Americas title

COLORADO SPRINGS (2015 FIBA U19 World Championship) - Five of the 16 spots at the 2015 FIBA U19 World Championship have been locked up including the reigning champions as the United States was one of a quartet of teams from FIBA Americas to qualify for the tournament that will take place next year in Greece.

The USA knocked off Canada, 113-79, on Tuesday to win the 2014 FIBA Americas U18 Championship in Colorado Springs as Stanley Johnson scored 19 points in the final and was named MVP of the tournament.

Justice Winslow collected 20 points and 10 rebounds and the third USA captain Tyus Jones had 8 points and 5 assists in the Final.

"Justise Winslow, Stanley Johnson, Tyus Jones, those guys have been through a lot of this," said USA coach Billy Donovan of the trio, who combined to help the USA win the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championship.

"Those guys really stepped up. I think that winning today was really, really important to them. They wanted to win and wanted to obviously represent our country well, especially considering the tournament's here in Colorado Springs. So, I thought those guys, leadership-wise, did a great job."

The USA won their third straight FIBA Americas U18 title and seventh in a total of nine events. Puerto Rico won in 2002 and Argentina took the crown in 2008. The Americans have qualified for every FIBA U19 World Championships, winning five times.

Canada were led by Dillon Brooks' 27 points while Montaque Gill-Caeser had 22 and Chris Egi collected 18 points and 13 rebounds. The Canadians finally reached the Final of the FIBA Americas U18 Championship after three straight third-placed finishes in 2008, 2010 and 2012 and a fourth-placed showing in 2006.

The Canadians booked a place to the FIBA U19 World Championship for the fifth straight time.

Joining the USA, Canada and tournament hosts Greece at next year's event (27 June-5 July 2015) will be Argentina and Dominican Republic, the other two teams to reach the FIBA Americas Semi-Finals.

The Dominicans lost to the USA in the Semi-Finals but bounced back to beat Argentina to take third place and qualified for the U19 Worlds for the first time. They were also playing at the FIBA Americas tournament for the first time since 2002.

Argentina will feature at the U19 Worlds for the 11th time - having only missed out in 1987. Their best results are third-place finishes at the 1979 and 1991 editions of the championship.

The other 11 spots will be decided over the course of the summer's U18 continental championships.

FIBA