Team USA went ice cold in the second half of its game against Lithuania in the quarterfinal round at the World University Games and dropped a 76-74 heartbreaker. UC Santa Barbara’s Orlando Johnson, in a starting role, scored seven points, grabbed six rebounds and had a pair of assists in the losing effort.
The American team led 42-37 at half but scored just 32 points in the second half and went down to defeat. The U.S. missed all 14 of its three-point attempts in the final two quarters of play and finished 5-for-30 overall.
“They fought hard,” Johnson said of Lithuiana “They fought really hard. You could tell they’ve been together for awhile. They’ve been in games like this before. There were situations down the stretch we didn’t execute … we just didn’t finish.”
Johnson, who started the game, was 2-for-8 from the floor, including 1-for-3 from three-point range. John Jenkins led Team USA with 17 points while Ashton Gibbs added 16.
In a placing game, Greg Somogyi and the Hungarian national team posted its first win, 90-56 over New Zealand. Somogyi made 6-of-11 shots to finish with 13 points. He also had seven rebounds and one blocked shots in his 23 minutes.
Team USA will now play Romania in a consolation game on Sunday, Aug. 21 at 5:30 a.m. (PDT). Hungary will play China at 2:15 a.m. (PDT).
