Incoming freshman Payton Verhulst is making waves with the USA Basketball U19 World Cup team. The World Cup doesn't start in Hungary for another week, but after the training camp from July 21st - 27th, the team has traveled to Europe and is engaged in some exhibition play for warm ups.
No schedule of exhibition games is readily available, but stat sheets have been posted for two exhibition games so far against Spain in Guadalajara, Spain .
In the first game on the 30th, Verhulst helped the US cruise to a easy 74-53 victory by putting up 11 points and grabbing nine rebounds. Add in an assist and a couple of steals, and her +/- rating was the highest of any player in the game at +23. Jersey Betts, and Lauren Wolfenbarger did outscore Verhulst with 14 and 12 points, respectively. It was a good spread of offense on the team with another five players scoring between six and 10 points.
The second game was contested Saturday, against Spain, with another easy US win 79-59. Verhulst led the US team scoring in this game, with 14 points, all from the field with two beyond the arc. Payton again cleaned the backboard with a team leading seven rebounds. Out in the passing lanes, she also gave the Spanish fits, with four steals. Again, the offense was spread around the team with nine of the 11 players that got on the court scoring at least five points.
These two teams will meet one more time in exhibition, Monday morning at 6 a.m. EDT before travelling to Debrecen Hungary for final preparations and practices or the World Cup competition.
--sonja--
No schedule of exhibition games is readily available, but stat sheets have been posted for two exhibition games so far against Spain in Guadalajara, Spain .
In the first game on the 30th, Verhulst helped the US cruise to a easy 74-53 victory by putting up 11 points and grabbing nine rebounds. Add in an assist and a couple of steals, and her +/- rating was the highest of any player in the game at +23. Jersey Betts, and Lauren Wolfenbarger did outscore Verhulst with 14 and 12 points, respectively. It was a good spread of offense on the team with another five players scoring between six and 10 points.
The second game was contested Saturday, against Spain, with another easy US win 79-59. Verhulst led the US team scoring in this game, with 14 points, all from the field with two beyond the arc. Payton again cleaned the backboard with a team leading seven rebounds. Out in the passing lanes, she also gave the Spanish fits, with four steals. Again, the offense was spread around the team with nine of the 11 players that got on the court scoring at least five points.
These two teams will meet one more time in exhibition, Monday morning at 6 a.m. EDT before travelling to Debrecen Hungary for final preparations and practices or the World Cup competition.
--sonja--
