After defeating the Dominican Republic and Brazil, Team USA faced a win-less Uruguay (1-2) squad at 
the 2011 Pan American Games where the U.S. (2-1) lost their first game, 82-80. However, even with the loss, the U.S. is still heading into the semifinal round as Group B’s number one seed.
After a strong first-half, where the U.S. saw their three-point shots falling to take an early 13 point lead, the U.S. would end up outscoring Uruguay 53-42, heading into halftime. However, the second half was an offensive struggle which saw Uruguay outscore the U.S. 40-27.
The game turned when Uruguay had an 8-0 run to take the lead 70-68 midway the fourth quarter.
And although Team USA had a 5-0 run to take the lead back at 73-70, Uruguay hit critical three-point shots and went on another 8-0 run that gave them then lead for good 78-73 heading into the final minutes of the game.
“I thought it was a competitive game. Uruguay played extremely hard and they just kept fighting us, kept fighting us and they made the plays down the stretch. I thought we were confident coming into the game. I thought we played pretty well in the first quarter and then they got some energy. They’re a well coached team and they played extremely hard and kept coming after us,” said U.S. head coach Nate Tibbetts.
Austin Toros’ Lance Thomas finished with 4 points, and 5 rebounds in 18 minutes while Toros’ Leo Lyons recorded 3 points and 6 rebounds in 21 minutes.
The U.S. was led by Jerome Dyson with 19 points as he was the only play to finish in double-digit scoring. Uruguay had four players in double-digit scoring led by Martin Osimani with 23 points.
Up next for Team USA is a matchup with Mexico.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
