Written By Josh Rajunov & Kayla Levine
Maccabi USA U16 Basketball rolled Thursday to an 87-45 win over Austria. After the nail-biting buzzer-beating win Wednesday against France, the U.S. controlled this one from the start. The only time it trailed was 1-0.
“It’s a nice change of pace,” head coach Ryan Trutner said. “As a coach, you don’t want every game to be exciting.”
It was more exciting in the first half than Trutner would have liked. Austria went on a run in the second quarter, and Trutner turned up the intensity in the second half.
“I kind of chewed the guys out at halftime,” he said. “I thought our effort going into halftime was unacceptable. It woke me up as a coach so I woke the team up.”
The team responded, outscoring Austria in the third, 28-8.
“We knew we could be better than what we were producing, especially in that second quarter,” guard Tyson Bass said. “We just kept it quick and got our lead back.”
Later Wednesday, the U18 team continued to roll, cruising to a 104-48 win over Great Britain.