Team USA wins gold in FIBA World Cup

The heavily-Duke studded Team USA in the FIBA World Cup took home the gold medal over Serbia on Sunday. USA handedly won the gold, winning 129-92.

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With Duke’s own Mike Krzyzewski at the helm, Team USA has won 63 consecutive games. In that 63^rd consecutive win, former Blue Devil Kyrie Irving scored 26 points and was named FIBA World Cup MVP.

“I think the results were dominant, but we had spurts of dominance in a lot of games,” said Krzyzewski. “And, we had tough games, and then all of a sudden we’d have a spurt and it looked like we dominated. Tonight was a heck of a performance in those last 35 minutes.”

The United States had a 26-point lead at halftime, but in the first quarter it didn’t look like it was going to be that easy. Team USA started slow, only up on Serbia 15-7 in the first quarter. The tournament MVP, Irving, started a 14-0 run after that.

Irving was 10-of-13 from the field and was 6-of-6 from behind the three-point line. Eight, yes eight, scored in the double digits. Former Blue Devil Mason Plumlee scored one point and had four rebounds.

“It’s the greatest feeling in the world right now,” Irving said. “Dealing with a group of guys that are my brothers. This means so much more to our country—three days after 9/11. A lot of pride, a lot of things we did to prepare for this trip. A lot of mental things and a lot of physical things that brought us closer together. I’m glad that the journey ends with a gold medal.”

Over the tournament, the United States played in several games and won them all.

Group Phase:

United States versus Finland: 115-55
United States versus Turkey: 98-77
United States versus New Zealand: 98-71
United States versus Dominican Republic: 106-71
United States versus Ukraine: 95-71

Round of 16:

United States versus Mexico: 86-63

Quarterfinals:

United States versus Slovenia: 119-76

Semifinals:

United States versus Lithuania: 96-68

Finals:

United States versus Serbia: 129-92

“We improved every game,” said Krzyzewski. “All the guys. We got to know each other. I can’t single out one guy because Kyrie is deserving of MVP, but I think you could look at our games and we had a different star each game. Klay Thompson was so critical for this team. DeMarcus tonight, James Harden, Anthony Davis, especially at the start of our run. Kenneth Faried gave us a lot of energy. It was not like there was one star. They were a championship team, and it was kind of cool. In 2010 Durant just kind of took us. He had an amazing performance. Team-wise this is a heck of a team. This was a really good team.”

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