07/08/2009 - Duke Sports Information

Auckland, New Zealand – The USA U19 World Championship team held off a Lithuania squad that was fighting for a spot in the medal round, improving to 6-0 with a 76-69 victory on Wednesday.

“I’d probably prefer a game not so close,” admitted USA head coach Jamie Dixon. “But down the stretch we got it done and that was nice to see. John Shurna, Tyshawn (Taylor) and Darius (Miller) all made some big plays and that’s what you need. We’ve said all along that it was going to be different players making key contributions on different nights.”

The two teams went back and forth throughout the first half with Lithuania taking an early lead before the U.S. went up 18-16 after the first quarter. Lithuania outscored the Americans 20-18 in the second stanza to tie the score at 38-38 heading into halftime. Lithuania jumped out to a five-point lead in the third quarter before the USA scored the final six points of the quarter for a 55-50 lead.

An 11-2 run by the Lithuanians tied the game at 67-67 with 3:06 remaining. Some key defensive stops helped the U.S. go on a 9-2 run to end the game and keep them undefeated.

Duke’s Seth Curry scored six points in the game on 2-of-3 shooting, 1-of-2 from the three-point line and 1-of-2 from the foul line. He played 16 minutes off the bench.

After a day off Thursday for all remaining teams, the USA, carrying a six game win streak, advances to the medal round quarterfinals as the Group E No. 1 seed and will face Group F No. 4 seed Canada (3-3) on July 10 at 8:30 p.m. (all times are Auckland local time which is 16 hours ahead of EDT).