Click here to view stats for the 2010 adidas Nations Global Experience.

Quinn Peterson – www.courtcred.com

Adidas Nations Day 4

The fourth and final day of the adidas Nations Global Experience featured the third place and championship games. The day wrapped a productive four days, as 100+ top high school and college players came together to work on their skills, learn the game from the pros and play against tough competition, and spectators and NBA scouts had the chance to see some of the nation’s best talent go at it in a controlled environment.

Earlier in the day, the college players departed on early flights and were on tot the next,while the high school players participated in led a clinic at the South Side YMCA. In addition to the adidas Nations high school stars were the same NBA players that mentored them that week: Corey Brewer, Jrue Holiday, Toney Douglas, Robin Lopez, Anthony Randolph and Serge Ibaka. Together the pros and preps guided over 200 local kids through drills. To make things better, two adidas Nations athletes, Wayne Blackshear and Ryan Boatright, are also two local standouts. Blackshear attends Morgan Park High School and Boatright attends East Aurora High School. After the event — which was free — the players went back and prepped for the night’s finale.

The games were held at the UIC Pavilion instead of Attack Athletics where the first three days of camp took place. In the third place game, Latin America took on Africa, followed by the championship game — USA 2011 vs. USA 2012.

A turnover on the first play of the game by Africa led to a fastbreak lay-up by slick point guard Cesar Guerreo, and African coach Detlef Schrempf immediately called timeout just 26 seconds into the game. Guerreo was just beginning the show he would put on for the rest of the night. With the help of Steven Adams who made his presence felt on the boards, including a thunderous tip-dunk on the game’s second play, Latin America was well on their way, jumping out to an 11-0 start.

Africa would struggle to score for much of the night, facing tough D by Latin America, in addition to poor shooting on their own behalf. They wouldn’t score their first basket until the 4:55 mark, but never got shy about letting it fly. Behind great play from Guerreo and Adams, Latin led 22-11 after one.

Latin America came out hot in the second quarter as well, getting a huge lift from guard Davi Rossetto de Oliveira, who came off the bench with buckets, defense, and energy, pushing the tempo and finishing. Africa would continue to struggle from the field, and Latin America would slowly pull away going up 14 at the half.

Quinn Peterson – www.courtcred.com

The agenda for Day 3 was identical to Day 2. But as the players began drills they seemed a bit sluggish, obviously a product of another day of grueling competition. There was a line at the trainer’s table and a handful of guys even sitting out for stations and competition. Still, they pushed through the workouts, and by the end, were fully ready for their games. While the high schoolers played, the college athletes went through some fast-break drills and shot free throws before wrapping up their shortest workout of the week.

Today marked the beginning of tournament play in the camp, in which teams were seeded based on their records in pool play. In Pool A were USA 2011, USA 2012 and Europe. Pool B included Africa, Asia and Latin America. In one matchup, USA 2012, the Pool A one-seed fresh off a big win over 2011 took on Latin America, the one-seed from Pool B. Both teams were missing key players, as 2012 was without 6-8 point guard Kyle Anderson and small forward Alex Murphy, and Latin America was missing point guard Cesar Guerreo. Jordan Adams picked up where he left off last night scoring and pushing the ball, getting help from Jordan Price and Isaiah Austin. Latin America hung in tough, however, behind the scrappy play of guards Luis Carlos Trevino Siller and Davi Rosetto de Oliveira and big men Hanner Perea, Cristiano SIlvia Felica and Jose Luis Aguilera Alonso who were active on the boards all day.