U.S. beats Senegal to finish group play unscathed and will face Latvia

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Chris Jorgensen/Iowa State Daily

Iowa State’s Tyrese Haliburton was named to the All-Star Five at the FIBA U19 World Cup this summer.

Jack Shover

The United States finished the group stage of the U19 FIBA World Cup unscathed after beating Senegal in their last group game 87-58.

Tyrese Haliburton again led all U.S. players in minutes played and moving forward, the U.S. will face Latvia in the first round of tournament play.

While Haliburton’s 24 minutes played were the most of any American player, Haliburton finished the game with zero points, three rebounds and four assists.

Aside from one free-throw attempt which missed, Haliburton only attempted two shots during the entire game, with both of the misses coming from three-point range.

Despite Haliburton failing to score, the U.S. still had six players with double-digit points.

Jalen Suggs and Jalen Green were tied for the most points scored by the U.S. with 14 each. Meanwhile, Trevion Williams nearly notched a double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds.

Senegal had two players with double-doubles with Khalifa Ababacar Diop finishing with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Amar Sylla finishing with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Senegal struggled to shoot the ball against the U.S. with only 37.5% of their two-point attempts and 11.5% of their three-point attempts falling. The U.S. connected on 55.2% of their two-point attempts, but again struggled to shoot the three with only 15% of their threes finding the bottom of the basket.

Through three games, the Americans have shot 20.4% from three. The U.S.’s three-point percentage ranks 15th out of the 16 teams at the World Cup with Senegal being the only team trailing the Americans.

Despite the long-range shooting struggles, the U.S.’ next opponant in the first round of tournament play won’t give the Americans much trouble.

Latvia failed to win a game at the group stage and lost to Mali 93-79, Australia 81-52 and Canada 78-76.

The U.S. and Latvia will play at 5:15 a.m. on Wednesday with FIBA streaming the game on Youtube.