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We are now somewhat midway through the group, having played 2 games with 3 more to go. In the first 2 games of the group we played Mexico and Bahamas:

United States 83-64 Mexico: We did not win this game by nearly as much as I thought we should have. Our offense was abysmal but the defense stepped up in a big way. Leading scorer of this game was Chuck Staley off the bench with 21 points, that tells somewhat of the story of this game.

United States 138-47 Bahamas: I mean, do I even need to elaborate on this one? I think not, utter domination.

Our final 3 games will all be good games, so this is where the real test begins. First, Peru. Peru sits at 0-2 in the group after 2 tough losses against Brazil and Canada. They have a few bigs above 20k salary, followed by a handful of guards just below them. It will be one of the better rosters we will have played up to this point so we are going to focus up and get this win.

No Bahama mamas ahead of this game!
Go USA!

We have reached the end of the group with the following results from the past few weeks:

United States 50-0 Peru - their plane overheated when trying to take off so they did not show up. Team was excited about an off day.

United States 106-76 Brazil - This was a very clean win against a strong Brazilian team. Brazil expected the inside from us with their 2-3, but also guessed balanced, both of which missed as we went Motion for this game. Bay Gardner had himself a day off the bench, being the leading scorer in only 17 minutes of play and shooting 5-6 from 3. The team shot 53% from 3 in this game which was very impressive as we walked away very satisfied with this win.

United States 108-74 Canada - This was an interesting one, as this was a must win game for Canada to have any shot at making playoffs/Worlds next season. We were fully expecting them to make more of an attempt to win this game but it appears that the Canadian coach got hungover the night before and slept through his alarm. This game ended up being very convincing despite the more effort from Canada, and it was a team effort with 7 players scoring in double digits. We sit atop our group comfortably, yet to drop a game this season.

Going into the playoffs, our opponent was decided in a final week matchup between Venezuela and Chile. Venezuela needed to beat Chile by 27 points to jump them into the 2 seed, which they made a good attempt at doing. Chile ultimately was just strong enough to only lose by 14 so we get Chile in the semifinals. Chile has had a very good season so far, with their only losses to Argentina and Venezuela. They have a very balanced team and have the ability to run any offense at their disposal. This will be a good match but we are going to come out hot to make sure we get this win.

Let's get that gold!
Go USA!