MIES (Switzerland) - The United States captured the title at the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2015 - repeating their trophy from 2013 - and the tournament in Greece will be remembered for the fight that Croatia gave the Americans.
USA collected their sixth U19 World Cup crown in 12 editions as they battled past a short-handed Croatia 79-71 in overtime in a thrilling Final. Türkiye defeated hosts Greece 80-71 for third place - their first podium finish.
The best team: USA
Rank | Team | Record |
|---|---|---|
1. | USA | 7-0 |
2. | Croatia | 5-2 |
3. | Türkiye | 6-1 |
4. | Greece | 5-2 |
5. | Canada | 6-1 |
6. | Italy | 4-3 |
7. | Australia | 3-4 |
8. | Spain | 3-4 |
9. | Serbia | 5-2 |
10. | Argentina | 2-5 |
11. | Egypt | 3-4 |
12. | Korea | 1-6 |
13. | Dominican Republic | 3-4 |
14. | Iran | 1-6 |
15. | China | 2-5 |
16. | Tunisia | 0-7 |
Greece was hosting the U19 World Cup for the third time following 1995 in Athens and 2003 in Thessaloniki. Sixteen nations gathered in Heraklion including hosts Greece while Dominican Republic were back on the global stage for just the second time after 1983 and Italy returned following a 20-year absence.
The teams were drawn into four groups of four with a single round-robin style competition. All of the teams advanced to the Knockout Phase, starting with the Round of 16. USA, Türkiye, Canada and Greece all went undefeated in group play with USA defeating Croatia 103-81 in Group A play.
The biggest highlights of the first phase were Greece and Italy both using big runs spanning the final two quarters to knock off Serbia and Australia, respectively. From an individual standpoint, Mohammad Yousof Vand collected 22 points, 21 rebounds and 6 steals in a loss to Egypt.
In the Round of 16, Australia bounced back from group stage losses to Canada and Italy to beat Serbia. The Quarter-Finals had Türkiye down Australia; Croatia race away from Canada; USA ease past Italy; and Greece use a big third quarter to defeat Spain.
Croatia reached their first-ever U19 World Cup Final thanks to a 91-56 drubbing of Türkiye, leading 44-28 at halftime and never looking back. USA meanwhile did not have an easy time of it with hosts Greece despite Jalen Brunson scoring 30 points. The Americans never led by more than 10 points but were never behind after the first quarter in an 82-76 victory.
In the Third Place Game, hosts Greece were looking for a fourth podium finish after first place in 1995, second in 2009 and third in 2003. Furkan Kormaz and Türkiye were too much though as the future NBA star had 28 points and 8 rebounds in an 80-71 win to give the country their first U19 medal.
In the Final, Luka Bozic missed a potential game-winning free throw with 4.3 seconds left, which allowed United States to beat Croatia 79-71 in overtime. More on that shortly.
The best player: Jalen Brunson - MVP
Jalen Brunson came into the 2015 U19 World Cup having helped USA win the FIBA U18 AmeriCup 2014. In the season before the U19 World Cup, he led his Illinois high school to a state championship with 30 points in the Final and participated in the Nike Hoop Summit and Jordan Brand Classic. He also was named as Illinois Mr. Basketball and had committed to attending Villanova University, where he would go on to win two NCAA titles - in 2016 as a freshman and 2018 as a junior.
Brunson led the USA team in Greece as the point guard, tying Harry Giles as leading scorer with 14.0 points to go with 3.3 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 2.1 steals. He also made 44 percent of his three-pointers.
Brunson scored at least 9 points in every game and five times in seven games dished out at least 5 assists. He shined in the biggest games, starting with 17 points, 5 assists and 3 steals in the Quarter-Finals and then scored 30 points with 4 rebounds and 4 assists in the Semi-Finals. In the overtime thriller of a Final, Brunson played 40 minutes and collected 14 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists.
Brunson was joined on the All-Star Five by teammate Harry Giles along with Marko Arapovic of Croatia, Türkiye's Furkan Korkmaz and Tyler Dorsey of Greece.
The best game: The Final - USA outlast Croatia in OT thriller
The Americans were coming into the Final looking for a second straight title and with a 17-game winning streak dating back to their loss to Russia in the 2011 Quarter-Finals. Croatia were in unchartered waters, playing in the Final for the first time after taking third place in 1999 and 2009.
Croatia, who had lost 103-81 in the group stage to USA, controlled the tempo from the start and trailed 10-4 but it was close throughout the first quarter and the Americans led just 14-13. The second quarter was a thrilling back-and-forth with eight lead changes and the biggest lead being three points. USA were up 34-31 at halftime.
After the break, Croatia tried to stay close but watched as the Americans opened some daylight with a 47-37 lead. The Europeans fought themselves back into the game with a 10-3 surge to trail just 50-47 after three quarters.
The decimated Croatians were able to overcome captain Marko Arapovic fouling out with 6:35 minutes left to go as the Americans could not pull away. The lead changed hands four times in the final 2:30 minutes and USA led 67-64 with 51 seconds left.
After an Ivica Zubac score to make it a one-point game, USA star Harry Giles stepped out of bounds with 25 seconds remaining. Luka Bozic went to the line with 4.3 seconds to go with the chance to win the game. The Croatian point guard made the first free throw but missed the second and the game went to overtime tied 67-67.
The Croatians just had nothing left and could not execute offensively, failing to convert on their first seven possessions of the extra session. USA reeled off 10 straight points to lead 77-67 and decide the game.
Jalen Brunson led the Americans with 14 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists and Giles and Jayson Tatum both had 13 points. Nik Slavica paced all scorers with 23 points, Arapovic finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds, Zubac had 12 points and 13 rebounds and Bozic chipped in 12 points. But he will live with the memory of missing the free throw.
The best highlight: Slavica with amazing block on Tatum
The 2015 U19 World Cup witnessed one of the greatest individual highlights in the history of the competition - and it came in the Final. Croatia were dead-even 53-53 with about 7 minutes left in the game and showing the Americans they were up to the battle.
Jayson Tatum - who a summer earlier helped United States win the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup 2014 title - was showing the promise of a future NBA champion as well as FIBA Basketball World Cup winner and Olympic gold medalist. But that didn't matter to Nik Slavica, who was one of Croatia's biggest talents at the time.
Tatum got out on the break and Slavica kept pace with the American and then rose to meet him at the rim with an epic block for the ages. The game remained open and eventually was decided in overtime, but Nik Slavica will forever be remembered for his block on Tatum.
The best story: Croatia survive injury after injury
One of the amazing things about Croatia reaching the Final and USA needing everything they had - plus some luck - to win the title was how decimated the Balkan side ended up being.
The saga started shortly before the team left for Greece as tall talented ball-handler Lovro Mazalin broke a finger in the week before the tournament and missed the event. Then Dragan Bender was supposed to be Croatia's big leader and seemed a lock for the All-Star Five and finally declined to play for his national team.
Star center Ante Zizic played the first three games but missed the rest of the tournament with a groin injury. And the team blasted Türkiye 91-56 in the Semi-Finals despite having only six players play more than 6 minutes. Croatia's injury woes were hit yet again in the Semi-Final though as captain Marko Arapovic carried one of those six players, Borna Kapusta, off the court with a leg injury.
Kapusta was limited in the Final, playing only 11 minutes, but he was one of only seven Croatians even available as Zizic had already left Greece and Roko Badzim, Ivan Majcunic and Ivan Vranes could not play. Four players were on the court for at least 37 minutes including Goran Filipovic playing 44:05 minutes. The Croatian effort was truly remarkable and it was almost enough to be crowned U19 world champs.
The best history: Türkiye golden generation wins first U19 medal
The 2015 U19 World Cup saw the culmination of a golden generation for Türkiye, whose previous two U19 World Cup appearances came in 2003 and 2007. The team came to Greece as the reigning FIBA U18 EuroBasket champions. Actually a number of the Turkish players had won back-to-back U18 continental titles in 2013 and 2014 - becoming the first country to win the junior crown in two straight summers.
Yugoslavia were the last team to win two U18 EuroBaskets in a row, but those came in 1986 and 1988.
Türkiye's 1996 generation also captured the trophy at the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2012 - the country's third cadet championship following 1977 and 2005.
Three players in Greece were part of all three of those winning teams: Berk Ugurlu, Okben Ulubay and Egemen Guven. Future senior national team players Tolga Gecim and Ege Arar were part of the FIBA U16 EuroBasket 2012 and FIBA U18 EuroBasket 2014 teams.
The U19 World Cup team also included future NBA star Furkan Korkmaz while later senior national team players Yigit Arslan and Dogus Ozdemiroglu were also part of the history making side.
Türkiye went through the group stage undefeated with wins over Argentina, Spain and China and then beat Iran in the Round of 16.
They then knocked off Australia 81-70 in the Quarter-Finals. Türkiye were no match in the Semi-Finals against Croatia in a 91-56 drubbing, but they bounced back to beat Greece 80-71 to take third place.
The best performance: Mohammad Yousof Vand
The leading player in efficiency for the tournament was Iranian star Mohammad Yousof Vand, who despite finishing 14th shined against strong competition including all three teams from the podium. It was the center's second U19 World Cup after he collected 6.4 points and 5.8 rebounds at the 2013 edition in Czechia.
Yousof Vand started the tournament in Heraklion with a tough test against USA but still collected 16 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists. He followed that with 22 points, 21 rebounds and 6 steals against Egypt before being limited to just 4 points and 7 rebounds against Croatia.
In the Round of 16, Yousof Vand scored 12 points with 10 rebounds and 3 steals in a loss to Türkiye and he opened classification action with 24 points, 12 rebounds, 5 assists, 6 steals again and 2 blocks for an efficiency of 44 versus Serbia. That was the highest single game efficiency of the tournament.
Yousof Vand then had 13 points, 15 rebounds and 3 assists in the Classification 14-16 versus China. And the big man finished the tournament with 13 points, again 21 rebounds, 3 assist and 3 blocks. For the tournament, the Iranian star averaged 14.9 points, 13.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.7 steals for an efficiency of 25.0
Stats leaders
Points
Player (Country) | Points Per Game |
|---|---|
Andres Feliz (Dominican Republic) | 18.9 |
Dillon Brooks (Canada) | 18.8 |
Diego Flaccadori (Italy) | 17.6 |
Ivica Zubac (Croatia) | 17.6 |
Song Kyo-Chang (Korea) | 16.5 |
Rebounds
Player (Country) | Rebounds Per Game |
|---|---|
Mohammad Yousof Vand (Iran) | 13.9 |
Harry Giles (USA) | 10.6 |
Marko Arapovic (Croatia) | 10.3 |
Hu Jinqiu (China) | 9.3 |
Ahmed Khalaf (Egypt) | 8.4 |
Assists
Player (Country) | Assists Per Game |
|---|---|
Yoo Hyeon-Jun (Korea) | 6.4 |
Tolga Gecim (Türkiye) | 6.3 |
Jalen Brunson (USA) | 5.6 |
Ilija Djokovic (Serbia) | 5.1 |
Diego Flaccadori (Italy) | 4.9 |
Borna Kapusta (Croatia) | 4.9 |
FIBA