Auckland, New Zealand – The USA U19 World Championship team improved to 4-0 with an 85-69 victory over Greece in the second round on Monday.

Blue Devil sophomore Seth Curry grabbed a team-high six rebounds to go with eight points, one assist, one blocked shot and one steal in 20 minutes of action.

"It was a little different game for us, a kind of grind it out game. It wasn’t real pretty as far as offense, but I thought we defended some things pretty well," USA head coach Jamie Dixon stated. "We got the ball inside like we wanted to. We figured out some things as the game went on, so it was a good win. They’re a good team, they got some guys who can score."

Neither team could gain much of a lead in the first quarter but a pair of free throws by Curry put the U.S. in front 18-17 heading into the second. Each team went on runs in the second quarter but an 8-2 spurt by the Americans helped them take a 41-36 advantage heading into halftime. A 17-6 scoring run in the third quarter pushed the lead to 16 points with five minutes left. They would lead by 10 entering the fourth quarter and used a 12-2 run to put the game away with two minutes left.

Forward Howard Thompkins (Georgia / Lithonia, Ga.) scored a game best 22 points on 10-of-14 shooting to power the USA, which saw 11 of 12 players score. He was aided by Gordon Hayward’s (Butler / Brownsburg, Ind.) nine points, while Seth Curry (Duke / Charlotte, N.C.), Shelvin Mack (Butler / Lexington, Ky.), John Shurna (Northwestern / Glen Ellyn, Ill.), Ashton Gibbs (Pittsburgh / Scotch Plains, N.J.) and Tyshawn Taylor (Kansas / Jersey City, N.J.) each added eight points.

Second round play continues Tuesday with the USA squaring off against Puerto Rico (4-1) in a 7:30 p.m. (Auckland local time) game.