Mandaquit Has Upper Hand Over UW Teammate in U19 FIBA Title Game

JJ Mandaquit came away with U19 FIBA World Cup bragging rights over fellow University of Washington freshman Hannes Steinbach by helping his United States team to a decisive 109-76 victory over Germany and Steinbach on Sunday in the championship game.

Now these two together will head for Montlake to see what they can do while playing on the same side in the Big Ten Conference.

In Lausanne, Switzerland, Mandaquit was pivotal in helping the Americans pull away in this one and earn the gold medal.

In the second quarter, he drained a 3-point shot and then stole the ensuing inbounds pass to set up another score and give his team a double-digit lead for the first time at 50-39 and the Americans proceeded to pull away.

The 6-foot-9 Steinbach led all scorers with 19 points, hitting 8 of 14 shots, and grabbed 7 rebounds. He averaged 17.4 points and 13 rebounds per game in the tournament for the Germans, who won six of seven games. He was named to the five-man all-star team.

Mandaquit and the Americans completed a dominant 7-0 run through the U19 tournament with just one close game along the way, a 6-point victory over Canada. The point guard finished with 7 points and 6 assists. He averaged 5.7 assists per outing.

The title game was close only for the first quarter and a half before the U.S. put away the Germans, a U19 title-game entry for the first time. The Americans surpassed 100 points for the sixth consecutive outing.

Mandaquit and Steinbach will join a near completely revamped UW basketball team and both will be solid candidates to emerge as starters for coach Danny Sprinkle.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: